Rebirth and Regain
by Kaze-chan
Summary: I LIVE! Chapter 27! Take one college student. Make it his first day of school (he's got an early class to boot). Break his alarm clock. Then call him really strange names. Can anyone blame him for being a little freaked out?
1. Chapter 1

  
DISCLAIMER: I'll figure out what/who I do and don't own later, at this point let's just say I don't own anything.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Another cheesy reincarnation fic with another cheesy title ~_~ Well, _hopefully_ it's a bit more than that, I tried, I really tried!   
I started writing this back in... August I think? Before I started looking at any FY fanfiction. So while I've succumbed to the curse of the Overdone Plot I hope mine's a _bit_ different than what's usually put up here.   
Oh yes, I'm already VERY far into this one, on chapter 17. It's my original baby ~_~ So I know what's going to happen with the plot, what all goes on, etc. I just have to get it posted. I'm having a good time with this one, it's fun to write (most of the time).   
Warning: written with no knowledge of OVA 3. Also some swearing, light in this chapter, heavy in others. Gets dark later.   
Have fun! ~_~   
  


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"REIJIROU!" His mother's voice echoed down the hall. "GET YOURSELF OUT HERE OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE! Baka, of all the days to sleep in..."   
"Mm cmphinng!" Reijirou pulled the shirt the rest of the way over his head and tried again. "I'm coming, just hang on! Shoes shoes shoes..." He hurtled over the bed from the closet to the door, grabbing one sneaker by the laces and cursing his alarm clock to all the depths of all the hells he could think of. It HAD to be that morning the damn thing decided to not work, didn't it?! The year sure as hell wasn't getting off to a good start. Broken alarm clock, missing shoe... "A-HAH! SHOE!" Reijirou charged out of his room, down the hall, and into the bathroom and snatched up the other sneaker from the tile floor. He quickly sat on the edge of the tub and pulled them both on, tying the laces in messy knots before grabbing for his toothbrush and the Crest.   
His reflection in the steamy mirror (Chiaki must've used all the hot water again) caught his eye and he took a moment to inspect his fresh hair cut. It was shaggy and kind of short, although still longer than most of his friends'. It was a good thing he'd done it the day before, or he would've started classes looking almost like a girl. The thought made him burst out laughing: him, Enomoto Reijirou, a girl?! Ridiculous! True, he usually looked a bit more polished than he did at the moment, but the jeans, sneakers, white t-shirt, and flannel shirt made him look just like any other student. College student, he reminded himself. Which was what he was now. And-   
"REIIII-JIII-ROOOOOUUUUUUUUU!" He nearly fell over at the force in his mother's voice. "NOW!"   
"COMING!" Out the bathroom, down the hall, pulling on the flannel shirt at the same time, and into the main room where his mother was waiting to neatly stuff a toasted English muffin (with butter and jelly) in his open mouth, having had much practice at this with Hajime.   
"Ffannsh," he mumbled, scrambling around for the car keys.   
"Swallow, then speak."   
He followed directions. "Thanks. Where's Chiaki and Hajime?"   
"She's downstairs waiting on you WITH THE KEYS and he's already at school, taking a practice exam," Enomoto-san said, pushing him towards the door at the same time.   
"Practice exams this early in the year? Uhh, anou, bye Mom! Arigato!" He quickly kissed her cheek and hightailed it out of there before she threw him out a window, as her look said she was very capable of doing.   
  


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"Nee-chan! Thanks for waiting!" Reijirou didn't bother to open the door, just vaulted into the beat up little convertible he and his sister shared, throwing his bag in the tiny backseat and hurriedly snapping on his seatbelt.   
"No problem, just don't make this a regular habit! What happened to you this morning anyway?! You're usually down here before I am!" Chiaki put the car in gear and gunned it out of the apartment building's parking lot, making Reijirou crash against the door. No doubt about it, driving with his sister was taking your life in your hands.   
"Damn stupid busted clock! It picked today to not work! I seriously gotta get a new one." He wolfed down the rest of the English muffin before it could fly out of his grasp. "And then none of my good clothes were clean, and then I couldn't find my shoes!"   
Chiaki grinned and depressed the gas even more, exceeding the speed limit by a good thirty kilometres. "You have to get a new routine now, Reijirou-chan, you've made it to the big leagues!" She took one hand off the steering wheel (Reijirou gulped) and ruffled his hair. "Good choice on the hair cut by the way, you were beginning to look like me!"   
"Heeeyyyy, knock it off baka, or I'll make sure you don't get this crate for a week."   
"You wouldn't."   
"Try me." He grinned innocently, a look that could only mean he was planning something on the very worst end of unpleasant.   
"You... So, what class you gonna be late for, hmm?"   
"It's, uhh, I know it... Not math... English Thursday...... Umm, lemme check." He reached behind his seat and grabbed his bag, while Chiaki rolled her eyes. "Reijirou-chan, you don't even know your SCHEDULE?! What happened to you this summer?!"   
"I don't know, ask my brain, it knows more than- FOUND IT!" Reijirou hunched behind the windshield to protect the fragile paper from the gale force winds and found the proper block on the paper. "Here: 'Monday, 9:00 AM, Ancient Civi-' NANI?! Ancient Civilizations?! I didn't sign up for that!"   
"You didn't declare a major, AND you decided late, so you got stuck in whatever classes they had left. Deal with it, and see if you can change out after today." She glanced at the dashboard clock. "I'm not gonna do much better than you, I've got Microchemistry at 9:30 and Ibi-sensei wants us there at least fifteen minutes early to set up. HOLD ON!"   
VRRRRRROOOOMMMMM.   
Five minutes later, at 9:08, having nearly run two red lights and also nearly hitting a passing dog, the convertible pulled into the Seinan student parking lot. Reijirou spilled out of the car, grabbed his bag, and ran for the room his class was in, leaving poor Chiaki yelling after him to help her find a space.   
  


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His watch read 9:10 as he sprinted down the hall towards the room, silently blessing three years of track as he barely breathed hard, noting the room numbers as he passed them. He screeched to a stop outside room 37B and pressed his ear to the door, hoping for a miracle and that sensei had been late as well. Luck, yet again, was not with him, and he heard the clear tones of a fairly young male voice loudly talking through the paneling. He groaned. _Today is just NOT my day..._ He quietly opened the door and slipped inside the mostly dark room, a vague idea of slipping to a chair before sensei noticed him forming in his brain. And being squashed flat as the man standing in the brightest part of the room, not turning towards the door, clearly said "Enomoto Reijirou, I'm guessing."   
Reijirou slouched and groaned silently. "Hai, sensei. Gomen nasai. I'm late on the first day of class."   
"Hai, you are." The man's voice wasn't harsh or disapproving. If anything, it sounded disappointed, which Reijirou found worse than the other two. "Well, come down here and give me your excuse."   
The room was built like a very small amphitheatre, with the half-circle shaped lecture area like the stage, and the thirty to forty students' seats and foldaway desktops perched on the tiers. The only door to the room opened on what would have been stage left, with a narrow stairway down the tiers to the lecture area. The lights in the rest of the room had been turned off to allow sensei to use the overhead projector. Reijirou was reminded of nothing so much as walking on to a stage with a full house as he walked slowly down the stairs, into the light, the eyes of all the other students following this slacker who cared so little about his future that he'd show up late on the first day. Reijirou grimaced with every step, definitely not liking the class so far, and cleared his throat to get sensei's attention when he reached the lecture area before schooling his face into a neutral expression, waiting for the explosion.   
Sensei capped his pen and turned around, giving Reijirou his first clear look at him. He appeared to be in his late twenties at most, with blue-green hair not much shorter than Reijirou's own. He was dressed a lot more casually than Reijirou was used to in teachers, in a simple dark blue shirt and black pants; in fact, he'd like to know where sensei bought his clothes. The light reflected off a pair of square reading glasses that hid his eyes, yet even they looked pretty cool. Sensei definitely knew how to dress.   
Reijirou blinked his hazel eyes against a feeling of déjà vu as sensei absently beckoned him up to the large desk, sitting in the rolling office chair behind it, picking up a ballpoint pen and writing in the thin spiral-bound book on the large blotter. "Enomoto... Reijirou... And why were you late, Enomoto?" he asked, continuing to write.   
"My alarm clock broke."   
"A simple one? That's rare, especially on the first day." Sensei kept writing.   
"I could make it a lot more colorful if you want," Reijirou said impishly. He heard a few muffled laughs behind him in the tiers.   
Sensei grinned wryly at the book, noting the date and the time Reijirou had come in. "And having a comedian in class is even rarer. Keep it down for now Enomoto, you don't want to be late and be reported on the same day, any more than I want to deal with more paperwork."   
"Hai sensei."   
Sensei dropped the pen on the blotter again and looked up, giving Reijirou a studying look with blue, almost gray eyes. "Now..." He gasped faintly, gray eyes widening in shock. "You... You..."   
Reijirou was completely confused. "Nani?"   
Sensei stood up slowly, unhooking the glasses from behind his ears, still staring at Reijirou. He leaned forward a little over the desk, making Reijirou bend back at the waist a bit. "Sensei, nani?"   
"Nuriko...?" whispered sensei.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Well, hopefully it wasn't that bad. Gomen, the first part's pretty short, but the rest gradually get longer... and longer... I hope to be posting another part soon! Ja! ~_~ 


	2. Chapter 2

  
DISCLAIMER: Apparently I am now cereal. You honestly think cereal can own any of this?   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: -_-() Sorry, but in my opinion (and a few others), this chapter definitely isn't the best thing I've ever written. The first part of this fic (chapters 1 to 6 or 7) were written before I settled into the style(s) I'm comfortable with, so the quality on them isn't that great. I know you won't hold it against me though ~_~   
I might be going back and making some changes to the first few chapters - like I said, this is the first fanfic I ever wrote, and while I hope it helps me avoid the cliches, it's not that great on style, but I'll work on it. Now that I look back on it, this is also in the days before my nine-page chapters and I think I was trying to cram too much into a small space. I'll try and fix it, I promise.   
Ahh well, until I do, happy reading! ~_~   
Oh yeah, one last thing! I'm a big believer in how your environment helps shape your character and personality, so if a reincarnation seems a bit different than the person they're supposed to be, just put it down to a new life in a new time in a new place with new people (mostly) ~_~   
Warnings: weird writing, bad language... ummmmmm...... cheesiness? I dun know, homework, gag. @_@   
  


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"Nani? Sensei, daijobu?" Reijirou was getting more than a little nervous, and his back was starting to hurt.   
Sensei blinked once, twice, then settled back in his chair, sighing and rubbing his forehead. "Hai... You just reminded me of someone... Anyway." He hooked the glasses back on his ears and sat up straighter in the chair. "Since you missed it, I am Sukunami Taka. Formality makes me kind of nervous, so you don't have to call me Sukunami-sensei if you don't want to." He grinned. "You can even call me Taka, as long as you don't disrespect me. And I'll definitely let you know if you do."   
Reijirou grinned back and saluted, "clicking" his heels. "Hai, Taka!"   
Taka groaned and gave him look. "As much as I want to laugh now, I DO have a job to do, so get a seat and start taking these notes. Fortunately for you I haven't gotten very far." Taka stood up and went back to the projector, picked up his pen, and began writing again, verbally explaining the course outline he was sketching on the overhead.   
Reijirou shrugged and started hiking up the steps going up the middle of the tiers to a seat in the back. About halfway up he felt a tug on his right sleeve. "What was all that?"   
Reijirou blinked in the dim light and recognized Risako, a girl he knew slightly from high school. He shrugged his ignorance at her question. "Don't know, but it was definitely weird." He kept going up the stairs, flopping down in the first available aisle seat he found, letting his legs stick out into the aisle as he started to copy the outline and prepared to be bored out of his mind.   
  


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"All right guys, you're free, see you at one on Wednesday!" Taka shouted two hours later.   
Reijirou blinked and slowly came back to the present as his classmates gathered their things and left chattering lively. "Nani? It's over already?" It had hardly seemed like two hours. After Taka got through the course schedule, which even he admitted was boring as hell, he had lead them through a discussion/debate on whether the Aztecs and Incas would have survived the conquistadors if they'd been left alone for another century or two. Although the topic hadn't seemed that interesting at first, Taka proved to be a skillful debater who could draw out an opinion from just about anyone and keep the subject interesting. Even Reijirou, whose weakest subject was usually History, debated hotly, surprising himself.   
_Maybe I won't drop this class..._he thought as he gathered his stuff. It seemed a lot more interesting than math.   
"Enomoto, would you come here?" Taka called.   
"Hai!" Reijirou left his bag unzipped and charged down the steps, jumping off the fifth to last one and landing with a thud in front of the desk, earning him a round of applause from the few students still in the room. "What do you want Taka?"   
Taka laughed as he landed. No doubt about it, he lucked out in the teachers department, any one of the people he'd had the year before would've cussed him out big time for that little stunt. "You missed the book list I handed out at the beginning of class. You'll need to read these books by the assigned dates if you're gonna have any idea of what's going on in here." Taka handed him a piece of Xeroxed paper - with a twenty-book list on it.   
"NANI?! You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Reijirou fell over, crashing on his stuff. "TWENTY BOOKS?!"   
Taka leaned over the desk to see his prostrate student's look of absolute horror, wearing a very amused look of his own. "Don't worry Enomoto, most of 'em are short - only two or three on there that'll take you more than three hours to read."   
Reijirou shot him a wary look from his somewhat uncomfortable position on top of his books. "Are they dull pieces of s- trash?"   
Taka smirked at the change of language. "We're not a history person, are we?"   
"Iie, WE are not." Reijirou rolled off the books and to his feet, brushing off his clothes, while Taka settled back in his chair. "Then why did you sign up for this class?"   
Reijirou knelt next to his bag and started pushing stuff back inside in great handfuls. "I didn't, I'm one of the late decision people. I didn't make up my mind to go here soon enough, so I didn't get all the classes I wanted. I got pushed in here. I'm not a history person at all." He grunted as he tried to shove in a library hardback among all the papers.   
"Hmm... I see. Maybe, Enomoto Reijirou, you should think about becoming a history person."   
Taka's voice had a strange, serious inflection to it, so different from his bantering tone just moments before that Reijirou looked up at him with a wary glance. Taka had folded his hands together in front of his face, resting his elbows on the edge of the desk, looking at him with as serious an expression on his face as he had when Reijirou had walked in late. "What do you mean, sensei?" he warily responded, using the formal title instead of his name for the first time. He slowly stood up, leaving his stuff scattered around his feet.   
Taka stared back at him, just as serious. "I mean that you are someone I... can picture going far with history." He rested his arms on the blotter and leaned forward slightly again. This time Reijirou simply matched him look for look. "Just think about it." Taka blinked and stood up, walking out to put the overhead away. "Any more questions?"   
There definitely needed to be less tension in the room. "Hai. Where d'you get your clothes?"   
"Nani?!" That definitely surprised him, but he grinned widely. "Several places. I can give you some of the names Wednesday."   
"Arigato, I need new stuff!" Reijirou zipped his bag shut and sprinted to the door. "See you Wednesday Taka!" The door slammed as he ran out.   
Taka smiled at the door. "Yeah, Wednesday." The smile slowly faded into a mixture of sadness and wistfulness, and he sighed. "Is that really him...?"   
  


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"Reijirou-kun!"   
He skidded to a stop just before he slammed into the opposite wall, dropping his bag and nearly falling over again. "Risako-san? That you?"   
"Hai, baka." She grinned. "Y'know, I don't remember you being this class clown-ish in high school... What're you on?"   
"FREEDOM! Only a few years left to put up with the family." He grinned at her and picked up his bag, then started walking down the hall to the elevator. "Why'd you wait?"   
She shrugged and followed after him. "You're the only one I know in there, so why not? Gotta have someone to talk to."   
"Makes enough sense to me. Wanna grab something to eat? Whoa, hold on......" Reijirou started fishing through his pockets for his car keys, pausing in the middle of the hallway and setting his bag on the floor.   
Risako looked at him curiously. "What're you doing?"   
"Just a sec... All right, wallet: here, house key: got it, random junk-" several pieces of crumpled paper, bus tickets, a pencil nib, a small foam ball, and a tiny tape measure appeared from his pockets at that point "-hai, so where the hell are the CAR KEYS?" He knelt next to his bag and started going through that as well. Risako wasn't even bothering to hide her laughter. "Nani, is this THAT funny?"   
"_Hai!_" She grinned and laughed at the same time. "Don't worry about it. There's a deli down here that's cheap, and the food's pretty good too. And," she grinned mischievously, "we can walk there."   
"Sold! Let's go! I'm starving!" Reijirou quickly packed up again and grinned at Risako. "Race you." He grabbed his bag and ran towards the elevator.   
"HEY! CHEATER!" Risako sped off too.   
"Oh, BAKA!" Reijirou suddenly skidded to a stop and groaned loudly. "CHIAKI has the car keys! She's got it for the day!"   
"Reijirou-kun no baka." Risako smacked him upside the head as she ran past, grinning. "And you lose!" She stopped in front of the elevator doors and smugly punched the call button.   
"NE! NO FAIR!"   
  


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"I STILL say you cheated," Reijirou grumped when they were about a block away from the university, headed to the deli. He glared at the cement, bag slung over his shoulder, scuffing his shoes along the sidewalk.   
Risako still looked smug. "If I cheated, you cheated too, so that makes us even. No complaining, or I'll smack you again."   
"But-" Smack. "All right all right, I get the point!"   
"Glad you do. Now, I got some questions for you."   
"Shoot." Reijirou stopped glaring at the sidewalk in favor of paying attention to what was in front of him when he nearly tripped over a dog's leash.   
"D'you have any siblings?" Risako looked at him curiously, waiting for an answer.   
"Why do you want to know?"   
Risako shrugged. "No special reason. Just saw someone the other day who looked a lot like you, but with longer hair."   
"Ahh, that was probably Chiaki, the one I share the car with. Let's see... She's a junior in our university, and she's studying something in science, ask her if you want all the details. And there's Hajime, my younger brother. He's 14, he'll be taking the entrance exams this year. People usually don't think we're brothers, we look really different."   
"Hai? So who do you look like, your mother or father?" Risako tilted her head inquisitively.   
He grinned. "My mother, definitely. Chiaki and I both look a lot like her. And each other. In fact, I remember someone when I was seven mistaking me for Chiaki's little sister."   
Risako burst out laughing again. "Oh God, I can see that!"   
"Ne, not that again! I don't look like a girl!"   
"You do more than most males our age," Risako teased. "Admit it. You know it's true."   
"Don't hold your breath."   
"All right, all right." Risako reached out a hand and poked his hair. "So your sister has hair like this too?"   
Reijirou grinned ruefully, remembering Chiaki's comment from that morning. "Yeah, pretty much exactly the same. Purple hair runs in the family it seems." He ran his free hand through his shaggy cut. "Although I got a hair cut yesterday."   
"It suits you. C'mon, just three more blocks to go, and then-" Risako broke off her sentence as a scream filled the air, coming from one of the side streets that was crossing the road they were on.   
"COME ON!" Reijirou took off quickly in the direction of the scream, Risako hot on his heels. As he got closer he could tell the screams were not in fear, but rather in anger. He rounded the corner, noting a block with a few stores and a small park surrounded by a low brick wall. He took in the woman with thick brown hair doing the screaming and yelling, the rather tall teenager with a black baseball cap pulled tightly over his head, hiding his hair and most of his face, and the purse they were fighting for in the blink of an eye, then had to stop because of the gathering crowd. Risako appeared behind him not a second later. "What's going on?"   
"Looks like this kid tried to mug somebody, but she's fighting back!" Reijirou started pushing through the crowd, trying to get a better view, Risako eagerly following in his wake. They were close to the front when the mugger swung at the woman and connected with her temple, knocking her back into the crowd. Risako immediately ran to her, helping to ease her down to the ground, shouting for someone to call an ambulance while the mugger jumped over the park wall, running for his life.   
Reijirou bowled over the rest of the people in his way, not caring who he knocked over, with a speed that could have almost been inhuman and gave chase to the mugger. Over the wall he went, landing as well as he did on the hurdles, crashing through trees, trying to run quickly and quietly at the same time in order to trace the mugger with his ears and his eyes. It wasn't that hard; the thief was very fast, but not very skilled. And Reijirou was slowly gaining on him.   
Reijirou was only ten feet behind him when the thief looked back. "Awww, SHIT!"   
"GET BACK HERE, DAMN YOU!" Reijirou yelled at him, gaining another foot. "YOU HURT HER!"   
"LIKE HELL I WILL!" The mugger tried to put on an extra burst of speed, but he was already going his fastest. Reijirou was the one to put on the speed, and to get a foot closer... another foot... two feet... and JUMP!   
Reijirou got a solid push off an old tree stump and tackled the mugger square in the back, bringing them both down and rolling them into a tree trunk. The mugger fought for a minute, but Reijirou had him effectively pinned between himself and the trunk. Reijirou twisted the thief's arm up behind him - painfully. He screamed.   
"Lemme go lemme go ya piece AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"   
"Not happening. Now SHUT THE HELL UP." Reijirou wrenched him into a lying position on the ground, with his arm still twisted behind him, kneeling on the small of his back.   
"THEN STOP FUCKIN' HURTIN' ME, DAMNIT!"   
Reijirou bashed him in the back of the head with his free hand, slamming the mugger's face into the ground and making him take in a mouthful of dirt. He may have been smaller than his captive, but he was better off in the strength department at least. "I hope that bleeds. You KNOCKED HER UNCONSCIOUS YOU SHIT!" Down came his fist again, slamming the thief's face even further into the dirt, making the already dazed mugger see stars and whimper in pain.   
Reijirou knew the guy couldn't get away now. He stood up, dusted himself off, and kicked the mugger in the ribs. The thief oomphed softly in pain and curled up around the kicked spot. Reijirou looked around and found the purse in a bush, where it had been thrown in the scuffle, and looped it over his shoulder with a grimace. There was no other way to take it back, but he did NOT like wearing a purse, even for something like this. He then turned back to the much-subdued thief and sighed in disgust. "C'mon, we're going back."   
He dragged the thief to his feet, keeping one hand around his wrists at all time, but there was no real reason for precautions because he was still too stunned to try much. Reijirou bent down and, blessing his strength, hauled the thief over his shoulders like a sack of flour, so that his booted feet dangled on his left side and his baseball-capped head drooped on his right, with his torso lying over Reijirou's upper back and shoulders. _There's no way I'm gonna run like this,_ he thought, and began trudging back the half mile to the scene of the mugging, the woman's purse slapping at his side.   
  


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KAZE-CHAN'S DEFINITION OF "OVERDONE PLOT": A storyline that has been written several times by several different authors, with a few changes here and there.   
SOME OVERDONE PLOTS (only applies to FY): "a new girl gets pulled in to be miko in place of Miaka", "a girl from the real world gets pulled in to be strong mystical help for the Suzaku", "reincarnation (mostly featuring Nuriko)", "yaoi (mostly TasukixChichiri)", "Episode 33". ~snooty librarian voice~ Most or all of the above require many chapters and/or a complete rewrite of the story.   
Kaze-chan would officially like to apologize for venturing, even unintentionally, into Overdone Plots Land, and hopes you'll be able to forgive her someday.   
.........   
OK, TOO MUCH CALCULUS FOR KAZE-CHAN! 


	3. Chapter 3

  
DISCLAIMER: ~wraps a bandana around her head and puts on large dangly gold hoop earrings~ For Kaze-chan... hooommmmmmm... For Kaze-chan, I see something she very much desires... but... Oh my! It seems to be out of her reach! What could it be?!... AHHH! 'Tis a specific anime she wants! But no, it cannot be hers!   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I never claimed to be fully sane, remember? ~_~   
I shall stop with the Overdone Plot bemoaning, and just go with the flow. ~snaps her fingers~ Go with the flow, daddio... All right, I'm scaring myself.   
To answer Ryuen-sama's not-really-a-question question ~_~ Risa-chan (Risako) is an original character... Like most of the OCs I make up, I grow attached to them and it ends up being that I can't get rid of them when I originally planned. So she wasn't s'possed to be in this for more than two or three chapters or so, but that definitely didn't turn out to be the case...   
You'll quickly see that Reijirou is not like the vast majority of other Nuriko-reincarnations out there, and I'm kinda glad he's not. He's still a lot like the seishi, but he's also his own person, and I don't really expect anyone to be exactly the same in different lives... Look at Taka and Tamahome, Miaka said that Taka was different, but in a lot of ways similar. And as another example, Kagome and Kikyo (from Inu-Yasha, my fave manga aside from FY, which I ALSO do not own...) are _incredibly_ different, at least from what I can tell.   
I shall hereby stop these really boring explanations and get on with the story ~_~ Y'all are wonderful for putting up with me through them!   
  


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Reijirou's captive was NOT a happy camper.   
"PUT ME DOWN NOW YA SHIT!"   
"Shut up already, nimrod." Reijirou managed to bash him in the head again with his right fist. "You did it, you pay the price."   
The mugger saw stars yet again. "Put me down 'r I'll bite ya." He twisted his neck around to glare Reijirou in the face, hiding a wince of pain.   
Reijirou just glared right back. "Look, you've got two options. One, I take you back and turn you in. Two, I break your arm, take you to the hospital, and turn you in there. Either one works for me, how 'bout you?" He kept walking steadily back to the street; they'd be there in a few minutes.   
"That's low, man, that's real low." He groaned as the stars swirled around his head one more time, just for the heck of it. "C'mon bud, jus' put me down, I don't think I can walk straight as it is."   
Reijirou gave him a suspicious, calculating look. "You won't pull that again?"   
"I do and ya can break my _neck_, jus' put me down afore I pass out!" He wasn't making it up; the world was swimming before his eyes.   
Reijirou noted the absence of cussing. He groaned and bent over to put the mugger back on his feet, then grabbed onto him to keep him from falling over.   
"Thanks man, I owe ya."   
"You seriously do, damnit." Reijirou risked a quick glance around; as he thought, no one had followed them. "Get the hell out of here now, before they come looking for us. I'll say you got away, just go!" The mugger nodded and stumbled away at a ninety-degree angle, deeper into the trees and hopefully away from the police.   
Reijirou grumbled under his breath for a minute, rotating his stiff shoulders and shaking out his arms, watching him clump away through the brush. He shook his head at the retreating figure, then pulled the purse off his shoulder and opened it, searching for some form of identification. He rummaged through, bypassing a jingling key ring and makeup case, before finding a slim woman's wallet. He pulled out everything that was inserted in one of the credit card holders and looked through it: a picture of two girls in their late teens, one blonde and one brunette, a business card for some day care or other, and - finally! - a driver's license. He glanced at the picture: yep, it was the woman who was mugged. She looked like the brunette girl in the picture also, only older. He quickly read the name. "Sukunami Miaka - SUKUNAMI?!"   
There was no mistake, that woman had the same last name as his new sensei. They had to be related. Another quick rummage in the wallet produced a small photo of her and Taka, stuffed between two credit cards. _No doubt,_ he thought as he looked at the picture, _those two are close. Are they married...?_   
"Baka! Get back there!" he yelled aloud to himself, stuffing the pictures and cards back in the wallet and shutting it in the purse. He started running again, though this time taking it slow, letting his aching muscles loosen up.   
By the time he got back the ambulance had been and gone, taking Sukunami Miaka with it. Most of the crowd was gone as well, no doubt pushed along by the two police who were taking statements on the sidewalk. Risako was still there, leaning against the wall and watching the police, arms crossed and an impatient look on her face.   
He silently crept up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. "So what's new, Risako-san?"   
"Yah!" She jumped and whirled, he had freaked her out showing up so suddenly. "Baka, you scared me!"   
He just grinned and ducked a swipe. "Then you should pay more attention." He jumped over the wall and walked to the police. "Officers! I got the purse back!"   
The policewoman looked up, motioning to her partner to continue taking the last witnesses' statements. "Arigato, we owe you something." She took the purse and opened it, shuffling through in much the same manner Reijirou had.   
"Nothing's missing officer, he dropped it while I was chasing him." _Well, it IS the truth..._ he mentally excused his blurring of reality.   
"Ahh." She glanced up again, alert eyes darting back and forth behind him, scanning the immediate area. "Did you get him, too? Your friend over there," she said, motioning to Risako, who was listening in on their conversation, "seemed to think you'd have no problem catching up."   
He sighed, a very convincing one that always worked on his mother, and hung his head slightly. "Gomen, he got away." _It ISN'T a lie! It's just not the whole truth,_ he told himself, as Risako gaped in shock. "He was too fast." _Now THAT was a lie._   
The policewoman sighed as well. "Well, you tried, and you recovered Sukunami-san's purse, so thanks. At least she can know her things are safe. She was worried about her credit cards."   
Reijirou nodded. "Hai. But is Sukunami-san awake now? Last I saw she was unconscious."   
Risako piped up. "She was only out for a second, Reijirou-kun." She chuckled. "She's a pretty spirited woman. You could tell she'd be raving and be after the thief herself if she had the strength. The medics thought it would be better to take her to the hospital and have her injury looked at though, it was bleeding somewhat and they suspected a mild concussion."   
"Thank you Doctor Daishi," he said in a dry voice, then looked at the policewoman again. "Excuse me, but are you going to the hospital to give her purse to her?"   
She nodded firmly. "Hai, I want her to be reassured as soon as possible."   
"Can we hitch a ride? It's kind of a long way to walk." He grinned.   
"Well, I guess you could. I think she'll want to ask you some stuff anyway, might as well kill two birds with one stone."   
"Hey, Owake!" The policeman's voice broke through their conversation. "We're wanted at the station!"   
The policewoman sighed and shook her head. "Come on kids, we can drop you off."   
Reijirou perked up immediately. "Can we ride in the back?"   
"You'll have to."   
"SUGOI! We'll look like criminals!" He sprinted for the car.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The police car went quickly, but not dangerously (something Reijirou was VERY glad of), down the roads to the hospital, Sargent Owake driving and Officer Fujimara, her partner, taking Reijirou's statement. Soon they were in front of the sterile-looking white concrete building that was Tokyo's closest hospital, where the officers dropped off Reijirou and Risako.   
"Remember kids," Owake said, leaning out the driver's side window, "tell her to come to the station as soon as she's able to make her statement. The medics wouldn't let us question her. Bye!" Owake pulled herself inside the car again and took off in the direction of the station. Fujimara waved to them out the window, and they waved back, watching the car disappear.   
After it had vanished, Risako turned on Reijirou with murder on her face. "All right, EXPLAIN."   
Reijirou feigned innocence. "Nani?"   
"Don't 'nani' me, you idiot, you know what I mean! There's no way that guy could get away from you, so what happened?!"   
Reijirou took a prudent step back from Risako. "I'll explain later, it's a long story. Let's do this." He grabbed the protesting Risako's arm and dragged her after him into the building and up to reception.   
The nurse behind the counter looked up. "Visitors?"   
Reijirou nodded. "Hai, for Sukunami Miaka. What room is she in?"   
The nurse turned to her computer and hit a long series of keys quickly, making Reijirou envious. "Sukunami… Ahh, the mugging victim, right? Room 6074. Elevator to the sixth floor, take a left, and keep going until you get there."   
"Arigato!" Reijirou walked to the elevator, Risako following and frowning. He punched the call button and leaned against the wall to wait. "Nani?" he asked, seeing the look on Risako's face.   
"How'd you know it?" she demanded. "None of us ever used her full name."   
He tossed the purse to her, which she easily caught. "That. I checked it for identification. You can carry that thing. Have you caught on yet?"   
It was her turn to look confused. "Caught on to what?"   
He grinned; he'd be able to get a lot of teasing out of this one. "And here I thought you were smart. She and Taka have the same name."   
Risako's eyes widened in surprise, then went back to normal. "That's right, I didn't realize it before… NE!" She whacked Reijirou when he started to laugh again. "YOU try dealing with an unconscious woman and see how well your mind works!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Sukunami-san?" Risako called through the open door to 6074. "It's Risako-san again. Reijirou-kun's with me this time."   
Nothing responded.   
Risako looked at Reijirou, shrugged, and walked in the room, pulling him with her. Sukunami Miaka, a brunette in her early-to-mid twenties, was asleep, a small bandage on her left temple, held in place with gauze tape, propped up on a stack of pillows. Reijirou could tell she was the teenager in the photo now, then blinked as déjà vu momentarily overtook him.   
"Sukunami-san?" Risako called gently, standing on the left side of the bed, Reijirou opposite her on the right. "Sukunami-san? Please, wake up. I've brought a visitor for you."   
Sukunami-san mumbled something, slowly turned her head to face Risako, and opened her eyes. "It's... Risako-san, ne? You helped me before." Sukunami-san's voice was much stronger than Reijirou expected it to be. He was thankful she wasn't hurt too badly.   
"Hai, that's me," Risako responded cheerfully. "I've brought another visitor, he helped you too." She grinned, holding up the purse.   
Sukunami-san brightened even more at seeing her valuables recovered. "My purse!! Arigato!" She took the bag, opening it.   
"Don't worry Suku- Sukunami-san?!"   
Sukunami-san had dropped the bag, spilling its contents over the bed, when he started to speak. Her mouth was agape, her open hands were shaking as she turned to look at him.   
"NURIKO!" He had no time to react before she hurled herself at him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and crying into his shirt.   
"Nuriko! Nuriko, it's really you! It's really you...!" she sobbed, holding him too tightly for even him to move.   
Risako and Reijirou stared at each other in shock. Not once, but twice that day had Reijirou been called that name they'd never heard before! Neither of them knew what to think. Reijirou sent Risako a pleading look. Risako shrugged, and he looked down at Sukunami-san with a helpless expression. "Anou... Sukunami-san?"   
"Hai?" Her reply was muffled in his shirt.   
"Who is this... Nuriko person?" He was very confused and a little freaked out about being repeatedly mistaken for him by the Sukunami family.   
Sukunami-san slowly pulled away from him, putting her hands on his shoulders (which Reijirou found much more preferable to having her latched onto him), slowly and carefully inspecting him with tear-reddened eyes. "Nuriko... who..." She sighed, and he could see the fire of hope being extinguished from her eyes. She looked down, letting her hands drop off his shoulders and folding them in her lap, and carefully shook her head. "No, you wouldn't remember, would you?… Never mind then." She looked up, and Reijirou could also see her making herself act normal. She smiled cheerfully. "Gomen nasai. What's your name? And please, have a seat."   
To both Reijirou and Risako, acting normal seemed the best course of action, and they each pulled up a characteristically uncomfortable hospital chair. "Well," Reijirou said as he settled in the chair, "I'm Enomoto Reijirou. I got your purse back for you."   
"Arigato, Reijirou-kun. I was very worried."   
"I know. But... gomen, I didn't catch the thief." A brief glance from Risako let him know he wasn't out of the woods on that explanation yet. "I ran after him, but he was just too fast, and then he threw the purse into the bushes. I think he was making me choose between chasing him and getting it back, Sukunami-san."   
She nodded. "That would make sense, and you can call me Miaka." She smiled at Risako. "And you can as well. After all, if those who help you in times like these aren't your friends, who is?"   
Risako smiled back. "That's true, Miaka. You can call me Risako if you want. How did the doctors say you're doing?"   
Miaka grimaced; she had a very mobile face. "Terrible. They told me that I had to have a few stitches, but nothing was seriously damaged. They _also_ told me the only reason I passed out at all was because I hadn't been getting enough sleep. _I_ told _them_ try sleeping with a hyperactive four-year-old!" Reijirou and Risako laughed. "Now I'm hungry to boot, and hospital food is one of the few things I DON'T like."   
Reijirou stood up. "We can fix that Miaka. I'll go down to the visitor's cafeteria and get something, I'm hungry myself. What do you want?" He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, opening it to tally his money. And blanched. "Risako-san, if you want something too, better chip in, I don't have that much."   
"Could you get me some sort of sandwich and a large bottle of water please?" Miaka asked. "And maybe some potato chips?"   
Risako tossed him her wallet. "Just get me a couple of muffins or bagels and some orange juice. This'll be my treat."   
He grinned and tossed his back to her. "Here's a hostage for you. Be back quickly." He took off at a medium jog out the door and down the hall to the elevator.   
Miaka watched him go, a slightly sad look in her eyes. "Nuriko..." she whispered softly, unaware that Risako heard her clearly.   
Risako wisely kept her mouth shut.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou returned to 6074 to find the door had been shut and the "No Visitors" sign had been hung on the door. He groaned and tried to juggle sandwich, chips, water, bagels, orange juice, boxed salad, roll, and Gatorade to find a free hand, but in the end gave up and kicked at the door lightly with his foot.   
"Who's there?" Miaka's voice called.   
"Ish nee, ofen theh dohr!" He worked the words out around the chip bag held in his teeth.   
"Who?"   
"REISHIRHOU! HURRHY!" The water was threatening to slip out of his hold and take everything else (except the chips) with it.   
"That's him all right," came Risako's voice, and a few seconds later she opened the door. She yelped and quickly began taking food from him. "Gomen! But thanks for going."   
He was finally able to take the chips out of his mouth. "It was no problem. Here you are Miaka, food as ordered." He flipped up the little dining tray on the side of the bed and put her meal on it, then took a plastic-wrapped plastic fork out of his pocket and flopped in his chair as Risako sat down, eating a bagel. "Food at last! I've been running too much today." He popped the lid on his salad and dug in. When he looked up a few seconds later Miaka's food was completely gone. "Hungry, weren't you?"   
"Hai." She smiled cheerfully again. "Arigato Reijirou-kun. May I call you Reijirou?"   
He swallowed some lettuce. "Sure, why not? Oh yeah, that police woman, Owake-san, told us to tell you to go down to the station and make your statement as soon as possible."   
"Thank you for telling me. Actually, while you were gone, the doctor told me that if everything's all right in this last set of x-rays I can leave in a few hours. I'll go then."   
"Sounds like a plan," Risako said, finishing the first bagel. "Gomen, but I have to leave soon Miaka, I have an afternoon class at two."   
"I should probably leave soon too, I still have to go shopping." Reijirou groaned. "I don't want another hellish morning like today in a million years."   
Risako grinned teasingly. "Damn alarm clock, ne? Made you late for Taka's class. And on the first day no less!" She shook her finger at him impishly.   
Miaka also grinned. "Hai, Risako told me about your experience this morning. Taka doesn't like it when students are late, you know."   
"Oh, NOW she tells me," he groaned. "That reminds me, are you and Taka related?"   
"Hai." She smiled down at her hands, where a gold wedding band glinted. "We're married."   
"I was right then, always good to know." He finished the salad and pitched the box into the trashcan. He quickly ate the roll and drank some of the Gatorade before standing up. "I better go, I think my mom expected me home about now. Do either of you know where the nearest department store is? Baka, almost forgot." He pulled Risako's wallet out of his pocket and chucked it at her.   
Miaka quickly gave him directions while Risako threw his wallet back to him, then he ran out the door with a quick "arigato", closing it behind him.   
Risako looked at Miaka seriously again. "All right, now tell me the rest about Nuriko..."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Later that evening, in the twilight just after sunset, a young couple sat on the couch in the main room of their small apartment, talking quietly so as not to disturb their sleeping daughter.   
"Is it really him?" the man asked, still entirely bewildered.   
The woman nodded slowly, but firmly. "Hai, I'm positive."   
"And are you sure you should have done that?"   
She nodded again. "I don't regret telling her what I did. Somehow she's going to be mixed up in this, she has a right to know. But he needs to experience it before he experiences it." She gave the man a significant look. "First-hand."   
The man sighed. "I'll trust your judgement on this love, you'd know better than I would."   
She looked away from his face, out the window into the sky, purple with sunset. The purple of his hair... "One thing bothers me though."   
"Nani?"   
"If he's here... how many more are out there?"   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeah, I know, a bit melodramatic on the end there. And if you're confused, just wait around, the answers'll come out - sooner or later ~_~   



	4. Chapter 4

  
DISCLAIMER: I am too busy worrying about picking off the little strings of hot glue from my fingers to worry about the fact that I don't own FY.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Not much this time... Another chapter, yay. Been buried under Lit work, car breakdowns, and being sick this week... at least my heater's working again. We're having some craaaaaaaaaaaaazy weather here. Freezing one day than 70 the next... ahh, the South.   
Stuff to watch out for in this chapter: language, a little friendly fighting. ~sighs~ Why can't these kids today be more mature?   
  


*************************************************************************************

  
  
Loud banging on the front door and the buzzer repeatedly sounding woke Reijirou out of a sound sleep the next morning. He groaned and buried his head under his pillow, but whoever was out there refused to go away. He gave up and lifted bleary eyes to his brand-new radio alarm clock.   
_Shit. They better have a good reason for showing up here at 8:30, damnit!_ His first class wasn't even till ten-thirty. He wouldn't've been awake for another hour at least, especially after finally finding sleep too soon before. The banging and buzzing continued, and Reijirou literally fell out of bed, getting slowly to his feet, glaring in the direction of the sound. "Hai, hai, I'm comin', I'm comin'." He trudged out of his room and down the hall in his old t-shirt and boxer shorts, not fully awake. He leaned against the door for a moment, taking a deep breath, before opening it.   
"Hey man!" It was Gesshin.   
BAM. Gesshin was painfully flat against the opposite wall.   
Reijirou glared at him over his extended fist. "That's for waking me up, you shit." He slammed the door and waited.   
A minute later a feeble knocking came from the other side of the door. "That's better." Reijirou opened the door again and hauled Gesshin into the apartment. "Next time CALL, baka."   
"Hell, I would've if I had some money!" Gesshin's voice was slightly squashed as he was testing his nose to see if it was broken again.   
"Nani? What happened to your job?" Reijirou rubbed his eyes to wake up a little more as he headed to the kitchen. "I need coffee…"   
"I was sorta let go…"   
"Wha?" Reijirou looked up from measuring coffee grounds into the maker. "You flipped burgers. Any moron can flip burgers. What happened?"   
Gesshin walked over to the fridge and opened it, scanning the contents. "Well… there might've been a fire…"   
Reijirou gave him a look.   
"...'r two…"   
More look.   
"...'r more."   
"BAKA! I should hit you again."   
"IYA!"   
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't, pyro."   
"Easy. Ya hit harder than anyone I know," he said, stressing every word. "'m still seein' stars from that last one! An' yesterday! Ya could've been a LITTLE nicer!"   
Reijirou spun from the coffee maker, glaring sheer venom at him. "Not after you hurt an innocent woman."   
"Hell, I didn' MEAN to!"   
"But you did. You reap what you sow. I'm still considering turning you over to the police."   
Gesshin paled, making a startling contrast with his thick, flame-red hair. "Ya wouldn'… "   
Reijirou's glare grew even more venomous. He walked slowly up to Gesshin and took hold of his collar, yanking his face down a few inches and glaring directly in his eyes. "Try me."   
Gesshin knew just how serious Reijirou was. "Onegai, c'mon man, it was the firs' time I ever did it… I needed the money for rent… I- I didn't mean t' hurt her!"   
A minute passed in silence, Reijirou glaring and Gesshin pale and sweating, knowing very well that he was in a bad state. However, Reijirou let him go and turned back to the coffee maker, adding water. "I won't as long as you never do it again."   
Gesshin collapsed against the wall in relief. "I won', I promise! Damn, I think ye're worse than the police." He rubbed his face where Reijirou had socked him, a nice bruise forming. "I wouldn've even tried, but the old man's been gettin' worse."   
"Drinking away the paycheck?"   
Gesshin nodded, running his fingers through his hair in a habit that made it stand almost on end. "An' more besides. Damned if I know where he gets the money for the booze, but somehow he's always got it… and the landlord threatened t' throw us out if he didn' get his damn check SOON. As in the next three days."   
Reijirou whistled as he watched the coffee. "Damn… And with you out of a job… How's your sister doing?"   
Gesshin shrugged. "Dunno, really. She's managed t' stay in school-"   
"Unlike you."   
"Are ya gonna start that again?"   
"I keep telling you, I can help you study and you can-"   
"Iya, I can', all right?" Gesshin gave him a tired glare. "'m busy helpin' Mitsuyo." He slouched against the wall and sighed. "One of these days… 'm afraid the drunkard's gonna go after her…..."   
Reijirou, although he definitely did not agree with Gesshin's actions the day before, knew how bad his home life was and how much worse it must have gotten to drive him to out-and-out thievery. "Are you sure you won't consider moving out?"   
Gesshin shook his head. "Not till I can take Mitsuyo with me."   
Reijirou sighed. "Well, let me know, I can help you look for a place if you reconsider." He glanced at the still-open refrigerator. "Grab something to eat, I'll be back in a few."   
He left Gesshin searching through the fridge and went to take a quick shower and change.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou toweled his hair dry in his room before dressing in a pair of khakis, a dark blue shirt, and his favorite long black leather jacket, mentally reviewing his schedule for the day and thankful it wasn't too full. Yesterday had given him enough excitement for a week. Or month.   
Suddenly he sniffed the air. "Is Gesshin actually _cooking_?" Visions of flaming frying pans danced through his head, but there was no denying that whatever was being cooked smelled a lot more appetizing than the solitary English muffin the day before.   
He played bloodhound and followed his nose to the kitchen, where he found Gesshin putting the skills he'd learned as a short-order cook to use. "What're you making?" Reijirou called, pouring a cup of coffee for himself.   
Gesshin jabbed his spatula at the fridge. "Whatever was in there, think it's bacon an' eggs. An' yer sister left a note for ya. It's still up there."   
Reijirou finally noticed the note, almost hidden beneath a large round photo-magnet. He pried the strong magnet off the door and unfolded her note, reading it outloud. "'Reijirou-kun, gone to early lab with Ibi-sensei-' she spends more time in his classes than at home '-and got a ride with Suezo.'" He blinked. "Who's Suezo?"   
"Got two guesses," Gesshin commented as he flipped the bacon over. "Classmate 'r boyfriend."   
"With her, probably both. Where was… Oh yeah. 'You have the car today-' sweet! '-keys are on the table by the door. Remember, Hajime's bringing his friends Katai and Shirai home after school today. Bye! Chiaki. PS- you just (8:10) got a phone call. Some woman might be stopping by before you leave for class.'"   
"Whoo-hoo, Reijirou's hit the big time! Ya go man!" Gesshin yelled, grinning evilly.   
Reijirou gave him a withering look. "You're looking to get hurt. Again. 'Name is'…" His mouth fell open as his eyes bulged. "SUKUNAMI MIAKA!"   
The buzzer rang.   
"Holy shit!" he cussed softly, remembering just in time to keep his voice down. "Gesshin, go in my room and lock the door, NOW."   
"What the hell? What's goin' on man?" Gesshin put the spatula on the counter and untied the simple apron he'd been wearing.   
"Remember the woman from yesterday?"   
It was Gesshin's turn for a withering glance. "Ya think I'd ferget that easily?"   
"Well, she's here." The buzzer rang again, and someone knocked at the door.   
Gesshin blanched again, looking rather like a ghost who's "head" had caught on fire. "Fuck. Ya mean…"   
Reijirou quickly pulled Gesshin's discarded apron over his head and tied it on. "Hai, it's Sukunami Miaka! The same one from the note! Go, NOW!" Gesshin needed no further encouragement and hightailed it down the hall, quickly closing and locking the door to Reijirou's room and settling on his bed to wait until his victim had left.   
Reijirou took a deep breath, picked up the spatula, and walked into the living room. He steeled himself before putting on a cheerful expression and opening the door.   
"Ohayo Reijirou, I hope we didn't come at a bad time." Sukunami Miaka stood there, holding an armful of sleepy four-year-old who regarded him inquisitively.   
"Iie, I was just making breakfast. Come on in, have some." Reijirou stood back and held the door respectfully open, letting Miaka and the little girl in. The girl started trying to look in every direction at once, squirming around in Miaka's hold. She turned big blue eyes on Miaka. "Down, pwease."   
Miaka looked at Reijirou as he closed the door. "Is it all right to let her wander around?"   
"Hai, teenagers do more damage than toddlers, and Mom hasn't gotten the breakables out again yet." He knelt on the ground as Miaka placed the girl on the floor, smiling gently at her. "And what's your name?"   
"Naora," she replied solemnly, putting her thumb in her mouth.   
"That's such a pretty name. May I call you Naora-chan?"   
Naora looked up at Miaka for permission, looking incredibly sweet and innocent.   
Miaka smiled. "This is one of Mama's friends, it's fine for him to call you Naora-chan if you'd like it."   
Naora looked back at Reijirou. "Hai, you may."   
Reijirou laughed and picked her up, holding her the way Miaka had been earlier. "I bet you're hungry, Naora-chan. Would you like something to eat?"   
She smiled widely. "Hai!"   
"Very good!" Reijirou walked into the kitchen, Miaka following, depositing Naora swiftly in one of the chairs around the table. "One breakfast coming up!" He pulled three plates out of the cupboard and dished up Gesshin's cooking (_I'm gonna have to get him to teach me more of this_, he thought). "Have a seat Miaka, you can have some too."   
Miaka took a seat, glancing about the apartment much as her daughter was doing. "This is very nice. Sorry about bringing Naora-chan, but her daycare burst a pipe and closed for the day."   
"It's no problem." Reijirou untied the apron strings and pulled it off, shaking his head to get his hair to fall back in place before carrying the plates to the table. "So what did you want to talk about, Miaka?"   
"I wanted to ask you to come over to our place later, after your physics class." She grinned. "Having your husband at the university has its benefits, I can get anyone's schedule I want."   
Reijirou gave a mock-rueful sigh. "So there's no getting out of it."   
"I'm afraid not." She grinned.   
"Oh, baka. Would you like coffee?"   
"Hai, that would be nice."   
Reijirou retrieved his cup and poured another for Miaka. "Cream, sugar, milk?"   
"Just some sugar and a little milk."   
He added the ingredients to the coffee, then sat down again and handed her the cup. "So what do I need to go to your place for?"   
She sipped the coffee. "This is good stuff. Well, Taka and I have something for you, but it has to stay at the apartment at least a little while longer."   
"Nani?"   
She grinned again, anticipating his response. "A book."   
"Nani?!" He nearly fell out of his chair. "What is it with your family and _books?!_"   
"I'm a professor's wife," she said smugly. "What else do you expect?"   
"Reijirou-san?"   
He blinked and looked at Naora. _She must be one of the best-behaved children in Tokyo,_ he thought. _I almost forgot she was there_. "Nani, Naora-chan?"   
"May I pwease have some more?" Her plate was empty, and so were his and Miaka's, he noted.   
"Oh, I don't know, we'll have to ask your mother." He winked at Naora, then both of them turned to look at Miaka with identical pleading expressions on their faces. "Onegaaaaaaiiiiii?"   
She burst out laughing. "Reijirou, stop encouraging her! But yes, she can."   
"Wai! Come on Naora-chan, you can help me." The little girl scrambled down from her chair and tore over to the stove, standing on tiptoe to see over. Reijirou picked her up again and "helped" her use the spatula to move some eggs and a slice of bacon to her plate. Neither one of them were aware that Miaka watched Reijirou with the same sad, wistful expression both she and Taka had used the day before.   
_So much like him_… she thought. _We must do this._   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
A few minutes later Miaka and Naora were gone. Reijirou sighed with relief and tucked the paper with directions to the Sukunami apartment in his pocket. Then he trotted down the hall to his room, knocking sharply at the door. "It's all right man, they're gone."   
"DAMN! FINALLY!" Gesshin burst out the door. "I thought they'd never leave!" He looked down at Reijirou plaintively. "Ya didn't by any change save me some of that food that _I_ made, now did ya?"   
Reijirou grinned. "Take all that's left."   
"SCORE!" Gesshin raced down the hall as Reijirou smirked, then headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth.   
"NANI?! HELL! YA FUCKIN' PIGS ATE EVERYTHIN'!"   
Reijirou leaned out the door and yelled down the hallway. "Hey watch it Fangy, this is a family complex and some people are still trying to sleep! YAH!" He rebounded back into the bathroom as a couch pillow sailed through the air where his head had been.   
"Don't forget who's taller!" Gesshin shrieked.   
Reijirou leaned out again. "Don't you forget who's A LOT OLDER! And faster! And-" SMACK. That time he couldn't dodge.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"So where do I drop you off?" Reijirou was relaxed. _This is really the way to spend college. Cruisin' with your friends and not worrying about times._ He was having a good day so far. And it looked like he'd be early for physics.   
"Jus' around here. I'm gonna check out the job scene, see if anythin's open." Gesshin was scanning the want ads of Reijirou's morning paper, as he'd been doing for the past hour. He glanced up to look at the street signs. "Looks like a restaurant near here needs a couple waiters 'r busboys, I'll try it."   
"Suit yourself." Reijirou parallel parked in the first space he came to, letting Gesshin jump onto the curb. "Want me to pick you up at any time?"   
"When's that meetin' of yers?" Reijirou had filled him in on the previous day's events, as well as that morning's.   
"Around one-thirty. Don't know how long it'll last though."   
Gesshin nodded. "All right, well if ya have some free time between class and then, could ya pick me up here? If yer not here by one-thirty I'll walk home."   
Reijirou gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds good. See you then, or later today." He backed out of the space and pulled away towards Seinan as Gesshin started down a side street, the want ads still clutched in his hand.   
Despite Chiaki's fuss the previous day, the student parking lot wasn't that crowded, and he found a space within a few minutes. He locked the car, slinging his bag over his shoulder, and started to his class, completely unrushed and feeling great about it.   
It was a mild, though not unpleasant, surprise to see Risako sitting in a desk in the physics room. "Hi you!" she called, grinning. "I take it the shopping trip was successful, since you're here on time. Even early! You beat everyone else!"   
He grinned back, setting his bag on the desk next to hers. "Yep, brand new alarm clock with built in radio that actually has good reception." He pulled off his jacket and sat in the desk. "How'd the visit go after I left?"   
A brief flash of something he couldn't identify passed over her face, but she blinked and smiled, erasing all traces of it. "Fine. Miaka seemed even better after she had food in her system. I had to go before she could check out though."   
"Well, she got home all right, she and her daughter turned up on my doorstep this morning."   
"NANI?! They left their home?!"   
"Not like that, baka!" He groaned. "Females. Always overreacting. She wanted to ask me something and have her daughter meet me. We had breakfast. You might be getting a similar phone call tomorrow, I'd have supplies on standby. We went through all our breakfast food, and I didn't eat a lot."   
She smirked. "I'll keep that in mind."   
The door clicked open and they both turned to face it, trying to get a glimpse of their new classmate or sensei. The guy that entered was definitely their age, but didn't look like a Japanese. It was easy to tell his blond hair was natural. And when he looked their way, it was obvious that the blue of his eyes wasn't due to contacts. He looked a bit confused also.   
Reijirou waved and shook his head slightly to rid it of the deja vu. "Hey there, are you lost?"   
The blond quickly came over, a typical university schedule held in his left hand. "Is this the physics room?" he asked in barely accented Japanese. "I looked, but the room number had been torn off the wall."   
"Hai, you found it. Don't think I'm rude or anything, but are you American?" Reijirou had recognized the accent.   
The other nodded and held out his hand. "My family's lived here for five years. Lowle Adam. Or Adam Lowle, depending on what language you're speaking."   
Reijirou and Risako each shook hands in turn. "Enomoto Reijirou." "Daishi Risako." Reijirou at least was silently blessing being good at English so he could pronounce the strange name. He had a suspicion that Risako was doing the same.   
Adam sat in the desk in front of Risako. "Do either of you know what this class is about?"   
Risako shrugged. "Physics, I guess. What else could it be about?"   
"Don't ask me, I don't know. D'you know who teaches this class?"   
"Uhh…" Reijirou grabbed for his bag and fished his thick book of course descriptions (complements of Chiaki's job in the copy office) out. "Lesse… Physics 101… Physics 101…" He muttered to himself, flipping through the pages to the science courses. "Ahh. Iie, no one's listed. Must be a new guy then." He snapped the book shut and stuffed it back in his bag.   
"Ah. Thanks anyway." Adam turned around and pulled a book out of his backpack, opened it to the bookmark halfway through, and began to read. Risako and Reijirou just shrugged at each other and continued talking.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"I guess that could've been worse," Risako commented two hours later as they left class.   
Reijirou yawned, bag slung over his shoulder. "Don't think it could've been more boring. Man, that guy's so different from Taka."   
"Hai, really. Where're you going now?"   
"Me?" He stopped and looked back at her. "I'm going to go pick up my friend, then I'm going to the Sukunamis'."   
"Could I possibly bum a ride? I lost my last bus ticket." She gave him a pleading look that would rival Naora's.   
He shrugged. "As long as you don't mind sitting in the back. And being subjected to Gesshin." He grinned. "That in itself is an experience."   
"Experiences are fun, I'll take the risk."   
"All right, but don't say you weren't warned."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind Reijirou was worried about Risako recognizing Gesshin from the day before and doing something unpleasant. But it turned out he needn't have worried: Gesshin was wearing completely different clothes and the baseball hat had concealed his readily identifiable hair. The two talked and laughed like old friends, Risako happily squashed in the backseat all the way to the Enomotos', where Reijirou let Gesshin out.   
Gesshin turned so Risako couldn't see him and winked at Reijirou. "She's a keeper, man," he said in low tones. He was promptly rewarded with a very hard whack upside the head. "Damnit, why d'ya _always_ do that?" He walked inside the building grumbling.   
Risako climbed into the front seat again as Reijirou pulled away, fishing the directions out of his pocket and noting the time. "Risako-san, want to just come with me? I don't have time to take you home."   
"Why not? I want to meet this kawaii little girl you've been raving about," she replied as she buckled on her seatbelt.   
"Good, cause we got ten minutes to get to the other side of the city in lunch time traffic. Hang on!" He gunned it, not as fast as Chiaki, but enough to slam them back into their seats as the car peeled out onto the street in the direction of the Sukunamis'.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Random question. Hopefully you know that Yui and Miaka have two friends in the real world named Morin and Fuu. Can anyone tell me WITHOUT A DOUBT which is which? I've been trying to figure this out for a LONG time, and I'm fairly sure that the one with greenish braids is Morin, but I'm just not sure... Can anyone help me here?   
D'you notice how Reijirou seems to change the way he talks depending on who he talks to? Why does he do this? I have no idea!   
Expect things to start getting crazy next chapter! ja ne! ~_~   



	5. Chapter 5

  
DISCLAIMER: Kaze-chan bought a really cool Shoujo Kakumei Utena notebook from the anime stand at the mall on Saturday. Unfortunately, they did not have Fushigi Yugi for sale, or she would have bought that as well.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I's sick -.- Not all that happy about it either. Ever have that feeling that when you move, you get all dizzy and lightheaded? That's what I've got. It's not pleasant, and I had a stomachache yesterday on top of that. And we went out to _Japanese_ last night, my all time favorite! And I couldn't eat it! That is SO not faaaaiiiiiirrrr!   
Anyway... This is the chapter where things start getting weird. Yepyep, weird. Because I am weird. And I have weird ideas. Oh yeah, speaking of weird ideas, there's a few things in this chapter that are ideas of my own and a bit crucial to my story, so don't blame me for making them up... I tried to keep them consistent with known facts though! I tried!   
Thank you everyone who's reviewing and giving my story a chance! And guess what, I finished chapter 19! WAI! ~was stuck on 18 for so long~ Thank you everyone who's reviewed, too, I'm so glad you all like it! ~glomp~   
PS-- High Elven Princess Kalasin, if you're reading this, e-mail me. I've got a question for you.   
See ya minna!   
  


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One mildly wild ride later, Reijirou's car was parked neatly in front of the apartment building where the Sukunamis lived, and he and Risako were knocking on their door.   
A very excited Naora flung the door open and flew out into the hall, wrapping herself around Reijirou's knees. "Reijirou-san! Mama said you were coming! Can you make me more bacon and eggs? Pwease?" She stared up at him with that pleading expression she seemed to use so much, looking extremely kawaii and making Risako giggle.   
An unfamiliar male voice laughed inside. "Naora-chan, Reijirou-san has come on important business. He can't cook you breakfast right now, especially since you just had lunch!"   
"Yes he can! Can't you, Reijirou-san?"   
Reijirou smiled down at the little girl. "Well, not at the moment, but maybe one morning you and your mother could come over again. We can ask her; she might like it, too."   
"She probably would." The owner of the new voice appeared in the doorway, looking so much like Naora that Reijirou knew they were related. The man grinned. "I'm Yuki Keisuke, Miaka's brother. Come in, have a seat, she'll be with you as soon as she gets off the phone."   
"Arigato. Let's go, Naora-chan." Reijirou bent down and picked up the girl, swinging her up to sit on his shoulders, holding her hands. "Ready for a ride?"   
"Wai!" The little girl laughed as Reijirou jogged into the apartment and around the main room a couple of times. Risako entered in a more traditional way, grinning at the pair of them.   
"I take it you must be Daishi Risako," Keisuke said to her.   
"Hai, that's me." She extended her hand and they shook. "You can call me Risako."   
"If you call me Keisuke." He grinned.   
"Nii-chan, stop flirting with my friends." Miaka walked into the room wearing an amused expression. "Remember, you promised Naora-chan you'd take her to the park."   
"Ahh, so I did." He walked over to lift Naora off Reijirou's shoulders and put her on his own. "Ready Naora-chan? We can try and catch butterflies today!"   
"Wai!" Naora was very happy at this prospect. "Bye Mama! Bye Reijirou-san! Bye nice lady!" She waved back at them all as Keisuke walked out and closed the door to the apartment.   
The room seemed strangely quiet with her gone. "You're right Reijirou-kun, she is kawaii." Risako smiled at the door.   
"Arigato, she's the most precious thing to Taka and me." Miaka walked across the sparsely furnished apartment to the coffee table and picked up a silver picture frame. She looked at it for a second, smiling, then handed it to Reijirou. "I'll get you two chairs."   
The photo was of the Sukunami family. Taka and Miaka were standing together in front of some trees, smiling at each other and not looking at the camera. In her arms Miaka had a tiny, sleeping Naora. She couldn't have been more than a year old.   
Risako looked at the picture over Reijirou's shoulder. "They must love each other a lot."   
"Hai, they must." He looked up as Miaka came back, carrying two chairs from the kitchen, which she placed before the coffee table.   
"Gomen, but with Taka's salary we haven't been able to buy much furniture," she apologized. Risako and Reijirou quickly assured her that it was fine and took their places, Reijirou setting the photo back on the coffee table.   
Miaka remained standing. "I'm glad you came too, Risako, you should probably see this as well." She looked at Reijirou, a more sober expression on her face than he'd seen her use before. She was as serious as Taka. "I asked you here to show you something fairly important. As strange as it will seem, none of this is made up." She disappeared down the hallway, going into a room and closing the door.   
"Wh-Wh-Wh-What's going on?"   
"If I'm right…" Reijirou looked at Risako and blinked in surprise. Her eyes were narrowed at the closed door and she looked as sober as Miaka. " If I'm right, then all this business about 'Nuriko' will finally be explained."   
"What do you mean? What the hell is going on here? This is too strange... I'm getting out." He started to stand up, but Risako pushed him down into his chair again.   
"Iya. This is important. I can tell."   
Reijirou looked at her in confusion, but the door opened and Miaka came out, carrying a slim white book in her hands, the expression still on her face. She walked back to them and silently handed Reijirou the book before sitting on the couch. Reijirou looked at her for a second, but her face gave away nothing. He glanced at the book instead, hoping it would provide some sort of explanation. "Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho…" he read aloud.   
"Is this the book you spoke of before, Miaka?" came Risako's equally serious voice.   
"Before? When before?" Reijirou was getting more and more confused every second, and he was getting frustrated. So far not one of his questions had been answered to his satisfaction, and it was getting on his nerves.   
"Hai, it is."   
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Reijirou exploded out of his chair, knocking it over and throwing the book to the floor. "Why don't you tell me what the hell's going on?! Why won't you answer my questions?! Why the HELL does everybody but me seem to know something about this guy who looks like me?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!"   
"Reijirou!" Miaka's voice cut though his like a knife, not loud but sharp and forceful – a Mother Voice. "You won't get any answers if you _don't read that book!_ So just trust me on this, sit down and _read it!_"   
He glared at her for a minute, then righted his chair and sat down again. "Fine." He opened the book to the title page and began to scan it.   
"Aloud please, Risako deserves to know this as well."   
He groaned, but followed her directions, figuring it'd shut her up long enough for him to get some sort of answer. "'Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho. Translated into Japanese from the original Chinese by Hongo Yui, Kajiwara Tetsuya, Yuki Keisuke, and Sukunami Taka.'" He looked up. "Are those last two who I think they are?"   
"Hai, they're my husband and brother. Yui is also my best friend, and Tetsuya is Nii-chan's best friend and Yui's husband."   
"Small world." He turned the page and began to read. "'This is the story of a young girl who single-handedly gathered the Seven Stars of Suzaku and gained the power to make all her dreams come true. The story itself is an incantation and whomever reads it gains the main character's power to have their wishes granted. This is because once they turn the first page, the story will become real and begin.'"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Hours later, Reijirou silently closed the book.   
He had experienced it all.   
Miaka's first journey into the book. Meeting Tamahome. Yui vanishing. Finding Tamahome again. Meeting Hotohori. Becoming Suzaku no Miko. Meeting Nuriko. Falling in love with Tamahome. Journeying to Mt. Taikyoku. Finding out Nuriko's secret. Nearly killing herself to save her seishi. Meeting Taiitsu-kun. Coming back. Going back. Searching for Tamahome. Finding Chichiri. Going to Kutou in search of Yui. Yui becoming Seiryu no Miko. Discovering what happened to Yui. Tamahome and Hotohori's first duel. Tamahome sacrificing himself to prevent war. Searching for the other seishi with Nuriko and Hotohori. Finding Tasuki. Finding Mitsukake. Finding "Chiriko". Tamahome's suffering in Kutou. Yui's love for Tamahome. Nakago feeding Tamahome kodoku. Going to get Tamahome. Tasuki almost being killed. Almost committing suicide. Hotohori fighting Tamahome to protect her. Healing Tamahome. Performing the ceremony. Discovering Chiriko was really Amiboshi. Amiboshi's "death". Meeting the real Chiriko. Learning of the shinzaho and its prices. Taiitsu-kun's gifts. The death of Tamahome's family. The introduction of Suboshi and Soi. The vow to fight. Setting out for Hokkan. Communicating with Keisuke and refusing to come back. Being swept overboard with Nuriko and Tamahome. Nuriko's confession about Kourin's death. His bracelets working for the first time. Fighting Soi. Arriving in Hokkan. Hearing the tale of the Genbu shinzaho. Traveling to Touran. Nuriko going fully male. Tamahome learning of the shinzaho's location. Confronting Ashitare. Nuriko's last fight. Saying goodbye. Gaining the Genbu shinzaho. Having it stolen. Leaving the others to get it. Learning of the "way" to regain it. Nakago's "rape". Being saved by Tamahome. Seperating herself from him. Being rescued by Kai-ka – Amiboshi. Amiboshi helping her reunite with Tamahome. Nearly being raped by Tomo. Suboshi killing Tomo to save Amiboshi. Meeting Tokaki, Subaru, and Shifan. Going to the monastery. "Reconciling" with Yui. Meeting Tatara. Gaining the Byakko shinzaho. Miboshi's death. Tatara's death and final words. Chiriko's possession and sacrifice. Yui summoning Seiryu and sealing Suzaku. Meeting Houki. The war beginning. Soi protecting Nakago with her life. Yui's wish taking them back to the real world – Tamahome too. Learning about the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho from Keisuke and Tetsuya. Suboshi coming to the real world and dying. Explaining to Yui. Mitsukake giving up his body. Hotohori dying in battle. "Marrying" Tamahome. Nakago coming. Tamahome confronting Nakago. Yui giving her power. Summoning Suzaku. Rescuing Yui from Seiryu. Chichiri and Tasuki arriving. The four spirits appearing. Tamahome and Nakago's final fight. Saying goodbye to them all.   
"It's… it's so hard to believe…" Reijirou's voice was hoarse from talking, as was Risako's. They had frequently given the book to the other when their voices had been reduced to mere whispers, or when they were choked with emotion. A pile of used Kleenex and an empty tissue box were on the coffee table next to several empty cups that had once held water. Neither of them had moved during the reading, being too enthralled in the story, laughing and crying with it, sometimes even yelling at it. Miaka had reacted too, laughing and crying with them, even cringing at a few things she'd done or said in the book.   
"Did this really happen?" he whispered.   
Miaka nodded. "Yes, ten years ago it happened. I was really fifteen, preparing for my exams. Yui and I went to the library one day because she had to return a book. While we were there I saw this strange red bird, and followed it as it flew up the stairs and into the Important Documents Reference Room." Her eyes were unfocused, looking not at them, but rather past them, as though behind them lay the past she could still see all so clearly. "Yui followed me, laughing about the bird; then this strange, charred book written in ancient Chinese fell off the shelf. We looked at it out of curiosity, and, well…"   
"This is what you got, right?" Risako said. "Almost a year's worth of unbelievable stuff." She sighed.   
"It's not unbelievable. And there's still more. When Yui first went back, she found herself in the library, and saw that what had happened to us was in the book. She read on, following my journey, until Tamahome, Hotohori, and Nuriko sent me back. Seiryu pulled her into the book then. I couldn't find her when I got home, but my other friends told me they had last seen me not even two hours before."   
"TWO HOURS?!" That shocked them both.   
She nodded again. "Time is different there. What was many months to me and Yui was two days at the most here. So I went back to look for her. Keisuke had followed me to the library, and after that he read. We were able to communicate that once, when I was on the ship, but I had Tasuki burn my hair so I couldn't hear him. Right before that he had run into Tetsuya, who for some reason believed this incredibly strange story his best friend was telling him about his kid sister being magically sucked into a book." She smiled faintly. "Tetsuya can be strange some times. But he helped Nii-chan research the book for a full day. They discovered everything about Okuda Einosuke, Takiko, and Suzuno, who was still living." Another brief smile passed across her face. "Suzuno and Tatara died at the same time."   
Risako sniffed and wiped away a new tear.   
"Nii-chan said he saw their spirits joyfully reunite outside Suzuno's home near Morioka. For a long time I was thinking that I would end up like Suzuno, living alone for the rest of my life, possibly adopting a child. But I was saved." She picked up the photo of her, Taka, and baby Naora again, laying her fingers over Taka's face.   
"Taka is Tamahome, ne?" Reijirou asked gently.   
"Not exactly… He was reborn in this world and we met again. Of course, he wasn't exactly the same as Tamahome, but they were so much alike there was no other way to think of him. Eventually he became 'Taka', separate from Tamahome, neither one more dear to me. They were and weren't the same person. You must remember that when I met Taka he didn't know who I was or have any memory of his life as a Suzaku shichiseishi. It's another very long story to explain how we recovered him, but in the end Taka took Tamahome into himself." She looked up at Reijirou. "Do you understand now?"   
He swallowed nervously. "You think I'm Nuriko in the same way Taka is Tamahome, ne?"   
"That's right."   
"But…... but…"   
"But what, Reijirou?"   
"But it CAN'T be!"   
She smiled. "Ignorance really is bliss at times… Yes, Reijirou, it can be. Tell me, when, in the story, Tasuki said something really stupid, what did you feel like doing?"   
He smiled ironically at the book. "Punching him into the nearest wall."   
She nodded once, slowly. "You both think the same. You both act the same. The only difference in your looks is you're a little taller. The only difference between your personalities is you are completely, totally male-"   
"And a good thing, too."   
She gave him a cross look for interrupting her. "-which I believe comes from Nuriko's reversion from Kourin to Ryuen at the very end. He never again really had the opportunity to be 'male', so you're doing it for him."   
Reijirou could only sit in the chair.   
"Miaka, why does he have to know this?" Risako's voice momentarily startled him. "Why couldn't you just leave him in ignorance? Why get us mixed up in it?"   
Miaka sighed. "I don't know entirely. I only know that…"   
"Nani?"   
She looked up, directly at them, green eyes sharp and focused now, almost as if her gaze could put holes in them like a drill. "I can only tell that _something_ is going to happen. Something relating to the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho. And that it will involve Nuriko." She sighed again, dropping that piercing gaze. "We used to believe that Taka was reborn in our world for our love, but now I see that's not _exactly_ the truth. Our love is probably the reason I met him so soon afterwards, but obviously it wasn't the reason for his rebirth, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Since you are, then either the gods have become more lenient, or…"   
"Nani Miaka?" Risako's voice was quiet and serious.   
"Or the gods have made a mistake."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou tried not to think about gods making mistakes while they ate dinner. He could picture the consequences, and they were catastrophic. All three were quiet as they ate, each thinking their own separate thoughts, all of them centered on the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho. Reijirou also had a slightly different idea. _If Miaka's right and I'm Nuriko, then couldn't others be here too, now? Maybe…_   
"Miaka," he said when they had come to dessert. "What do we do next?"   
"Finish eating." She said, grinning.   
They had to laugh at that. It felt good to laugh after the roller coaster of emotions that had been the afternoon. "All right then, after we finish eating and do the dishes."   
"We try a little experiment." She had that determined look on her face again. Reijirou was learning very rapidly to be wary of that look.   
"Nani?"   
"You'll see."   
Suddenly Risako banged her fist on the table. "Aww, damn... Miaka, can I use your phone really quick? I have to call my house and let them know where I am."   
"Hai, go right ahead, the phone's next to the couch."   
"It'll only be a second." Risako hurriedly stuck her plate and silverware in the sink, then raced to the phone and quickly punched in her number. "Dad? Hi, it's me. Yeah, I know. I'm with some friends…"   
Reijirou turned and looked at Miaka. "I'll need to use it after her."   
"Oh, that's fine. After you're done we can try the experiment."   
"What the hell IS the experiment?"   
"It's kind of hard to explain…"   
"Done!" Risako hung up and came back to the table. "It's your turn Reijirou."   
"Arigato." He walked over to the phone stand and picked up the receiver, punching in his number. "Hello? Oh, Hajime, hi. Do you know if Mom got my note? Yes, I'm still there. No, I don't. Whoa, slow down, if they're still there I'll listen to you guys play when I get back, all right? Sayonara." He hung up, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Miaka, do you think others from that world could've been reincarnated too?"   
"Probably, why?"   
"I was just thinking that Chiaki might be Kourin… We have kind of the same relationship Nuriko and Kourin had, but she's older."   
Miaka shrugged. "It's possible. Nuriko was a year older than Tamahome, but you're definitely not a year older than Taka."   
"That's true…" He sighed in defeat and looked up. "Can we get this 'experiment' of yours over with? The day's been kind of hard to believe as is, I want to get it finished."   
She smiled at him. "I understand. Be right back." Miaka put her plate and fork in the sink, then disappeared down the hall and into the same room from which she'd magically produced the book that had changed the way Reijirou thought of himself.   
A hand was laid on his shoulder. "Ne, daijobu?" Risako asked gently.   
He rubbed his temple. "I don't know… It's so hard to accept…"   
"I can tell. Gomen, I'm not being much help."   
"You're doing fine, it's a help knowing that I'm not the only one who knows about this."   
"Are you to ready to start this?" Miaka asked, stepping into the room, this time holding a very old-looking book with a reddish-brown cover.   
Reijirou pointed at the book. "What's that, Miaka?"   
She glanced down at it. "This is the book that would not burn, the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho."   
"Nani? But I thought we just read it." Risako was as puzzled as he was.   
"You read a translation of it. This one is the original, in ancient Chinese. This is the book that has all that power, that pulled the four miko in."   
Reijirou whistled. "That has to be pretty valuable just because it's so old… Why do you have it?"   
She grinned guiltily. "After they finished writing the translation Yui, Tetsuya, Keisuke, and Taka 'forgot' to return it. It lives here now. Ready?"   
They both nodded. "What do we have to do, Miaka?" Risako asked.   
Miaka handed the new book to Reijirou. "You hold on to this, and whatever happens, don't drop it." That made him a little nervous, thinking that whatever would happen would be something to freak him out that much. "Risako, you sit there-" she pointed to the couch "-and just try to keep silent. We're going to have to concentrate."   
"Hai." Risako sat on the end of the couch, watching Miaka and Reijirou.   
Miaka pulled Reijirou's arms so they were holding the book flat in front of him, front cover up, slightly away from his body. It wasn't an uncomfortable position, but Reijirou wondered how long he'd have to stand like that. "Now Reijirou, concentrate on what you know of Nuriko. Concentrate hard." Miaka placed herself in front of him, eyes closed, hands clasped in front of her face and first two fingers of each hand steepled together, murmuring something under her breath. Reijirou watched her for a moment, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes.   
He remembered everything about Nuriko that had been in the book. His little sister, Kourin. His initial dislike of Miaka and acceptance of her not long after. His habit of bashing people, especially Tasuki, into the wall. Cutting off the long hair that made him look like a girl. Trying to calm Tamahome after his family's murder. Reijirou concentrated with every fiber of his being on Nuriko. On his (supposedly) old self.   
Risako's gasp made him open his eyes, breaking his concentration. It was fairly obvious what made her gasp. The book in his hands was smoking in the center, a long silvery-gray plume wafting gently towards the ceiling.   
"_Concentrate!_" Miaka broke her murmuring long enough to yell at him, then started up again immediately in the same place she left off. Reijirou forced himself to think of Nuriko again. This time he didn't close his eyes, but instead watched the book.   
The plume was getting bigger. Already it had reached the ceiling, and he suspected that if there was nothing hindering it, it would be taller still. Reacting to some internal instinct he had no explanation for, he sat in the chair he had occupied the entire afternoon, and watched the smoke grow immediately taller. It widened also, growing outward as it grew up to cover the entire book and wider yet. To his surprise, where the smoke touched his fingers they felt pleasantly cool, even tingled a little.   
Suddenly he could see the smoke begin to drift together in the center of the plume, slowly coalescing into a definite shape. After a few moments, he recognized the outline of a body, but it was dark gray, not the black of something solid.   
Miaka's voice got suddenly louder, building in intensity to abruptly cut off. "…from the book, please come out to us!"   
The smoke exploded noiselessly away from the figure, disappearing into thin air. Reijirou and Risako watched in astonishment, Miaka with a grim expression on her face, as the figure drifted gently down to rest on the floor, facing Reijirou, who gasped. The figure's eyes were closed. He was wearing light pink pants, a long pale and dark purple overshirt tied with a rich yellow sash, and dark purple slippers. His hair matched the color of his shirt. He slowly opened his eyes, revealing brown irises. The bracelets around his wrists clinked softly as he crossed his arms.   
Nuriko grinned. "Hello, me."   



	6. Chapter 6

  
DISCLAIMER: Praise be to audiogalaxy, who has just about any song I could ever want! However, it does not have Fushigi Yugi. (It has the songs, but not the story. Siiiiigh...)   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Transition chapter. Well, explanation chapter really. Yeah, kiiiiiiinda needed, especially after 5. Things are gonna get weird. Really weird. Yeah, like it wasn't already. ~grins~ I know I'm insane, but I have fun with it.   
Minor explanation needed in the case of Naora... When I saw the OVAs, at the end I figured out that Miaka and Taka had a kid (duhhhh) but I couldn't tell what gender it was. So I wrote it as a girl (Naora-chan). By the time I learned it was really a boy I was just a biiiiiiit too firmly attached to her to let go ~grins~ I want Naora as my own kid. She's so adorable.   
Warnings for this chapter... Hmmmmm. Way too much explanation, for one thing. Minor language... A few things I had to invent for this story. Too much grinning. I think that's it. ~grins~ It's the calm before the storm kids, next chapter's confusing ~laughs~ And tell me if you see any typos, all right? No time to go through again and fix 'em!   
~glomps everyone who reviews, and her SLPRs, who always deserve thanks for everything they do and all the reassurance that no, she does NOT suck~ I wuv yoo! Oh yeah! ~Special Glomp for Lanen~ Happy now? ~_~ You're great, sweetie! (I have a habit of calling people things like "sweetie" or "dear". It's a Drama Thing ~grins happily~)   
  


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Reijirou could only stare, getting slowly to his feet, not putting the book down. Nuriko stared back, inspecting rather than astonished, his eyes scanning Reijirou from head to toe and back again. He finally nodded, grinning. "Looks like I turned out all right after all. Come on, wake up."   
"But…… but…..." Reijirou couldn't even speak.   
"Ahh, we'll come back when you've recovered," he said impishly, then turned to look at Risako. She was gaping at the two of them, her eyes darting back and forth, her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out. Nuriko just grinned and waved at her cheerfully.   
"Nuriko." The tone in Miaka's voice made them all look at her. She was smiling at the seishi, eyes shining with tears, speaking to him as if to a dear sibling.   
"Miaka." Nuriko's voice was the same, and as he reached out to her his bracelets began to glow with a strange red light, transforming into his iron arm guards. Their hands clasped, and Nuriko pulled Miaka to him and enveloped her in a hug, which she returned. "It's been too long…"   
"Hai." She looked up at him, tears running silently down her cheeks but smiling happily. "But you're here now, that's the important thing."   
"Hai… Here now… That's right." Nuriko looked up at Reijirou, serious. "The two of us have to talk, and soon."   
Reijirou found his voice again. "About what?"   
"All this." Nuriko grinned again. "If I'm correct, right now you're thinking something like 'What the hell is going on, why did it have to be me, and how do I get out of this.' Well? How'd I do?"   
Reijirou had to smile ruefully. "Three out of three."   
Nuriko gently let go of Miaka and went back over to Reijirou. "See? I am you, you are me, in a way. We have to work together. That's why you know all this, and why I'm here now."   
"Work together for what?" Risako asked quietly. She had been watching in wonder. Nuriko's shape was pale, ghostly, almost transparent, but she had seen him and Miaka hug. Reijirou and Nuriko seemed exactly alike. Even their haircuts were the same. It was no stretch of the mind for her to picture them as the same person, but watching Nuriko come out of the book like that had spooked her. Past lives were supposed to stay in the past, in her opinion, but Miaka had said something would happen involving Nuriko…   
Nuriko glanced at her. "Who are you?"   
"I'm Risako. I'm in school with Reijirou-kun." Her voice quivered a little, but none of the others seemed to notice. Nuriko looked at Miaka.   
"Nuriko, she's going to be involved in this, I can tell. She needs to understand what's going on."   
Nuriko nodded. "Yes, it's better tha- MIAKA!"   
Miaka had just crumpled to the floor.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Will she be all right?" Reijirou asked Nuriko anxiously.   
He nodded, looking at Miaka grimly. He adjusted the compress on her forehead and tucked the blanket more closely about her. "She will. Baka. It takes a lot of energy, strength, and spirit to call one of us out of the book, even with the other 'you' helping. She overreached herself." He took one of her hands, holding it gently. "When she wakes up she's getting a piece of my mind."   
Risako giggled. "I bet that'd be fun to see, you definitely gave Tamahome a piece of your mind that time in the cave."   
Nuriko grinned. "Ah, you know about that then. Yes, I'd have to say that might have been my best rant ever. And can I say you're both taking this very well."   
"Arigato." After Miaka had fainted there had been no time to worry about being squeamish with Nuriko. The three of them had gotten her settled on the couch in breakneck time, working with a startling level of coordination.   
"Now, I think you two will have some questions."   
"Some?" Reijirou asked sarcastically.   
Nuriko grinned. "All right, a lot. Want the really long, drawn-out explanation or just a summary?"   
"Long," they both responded, taking their seats again and looking at him expectantly.   
"Don't say you weren't warned." Reijirou blinked at hearing his oft-used phrase coming from the seishi. Nuriko settled himself on the armrest of the couch, next to Miaka. "Where to start… ah, yes. As you know, I was one of the Suzaku no shichiseishi. I was killed in battle on Mt. Black, trying to find the Genbu shinzaho. I wasn't allowed to be reborn until Tenkou-"   
"Who?"   
Nuriko shook his head. "It's a long story, Miaka can explain it to you, but it has to do with getting Tamahome's memories for Taka. I wasn't allowed to be reborn until Tenkou was defeated. During that time all four of us spirits traveled with Chichiri, Tasuki, Miaka, and Taka, and helped them gain the memory globes again. Then we were reborn."   
Nuriko looked at Reijirou. "I don't know whether you're my first reincarnation or my hundredth, but the fact is we're the same. And that fact is putting your life in danger."   
"NANI?!"   
"It's true. Miaka and Taka don't realize this, but anyone from our world can be reborn into this world. They simply don't remember anything from it, any past lives, or the miko. Although they are usually in the same general area, as a result of the spirit of the miko calling out to the spirits of the seishi, the miko and the seishi are prevented by the gods from meeting each other here. The seishi live out their lives in this world and die again, as does the miko, and everyone is reborn somewhere.   
"But you, Reijirou, met not only the miko, but the only seishi who _knows_ he was a seishi, and on the same day. That means that something's coming. Something will happen to the miko or one of the seishi in which it's best for the past to be revealed. Miaka still has abilities as the miko, and understood that the 'something' was coming. Her saying that you, Risako, will have a part in this is another miko ability, as is calling the spirits of her seishi out of the book." Nuriko glanced at Miaka, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "She might have been the strongest and most powerful of all the miko. I never met Suzuno, so I can't say for sure, but I believe she is. She and Tamahome were able to meet again and live a loving, happy life. She drew you to her. And she brought me here."   
"You really did love her, didn't you?" Risako asked softly.   
"Hai, I did." Nuriko smiled wistfully at Miaka. "I don't know whether I loved her as a woman or as a sister, but she was my closest friend and dearest companion. I wanted her to be happy, and so I left her and Tamahome and went to Mt. Black to give them time alone. I don't regret it. She's truly happy now, just what I wanted her to be."   
Reijirou and Risako watched with reverence as Nuriko stroked Miaka's cheek, awed at this person who would give up his life for the happiness of the one he loved most. Reijirou could not imagine doing what Nuriko had done, even though they were supposedly the same. Nuriko looked up again. "There's more."   
"Go on, please."   
"Reijirou, this is about you. You're strong, aren't you?"   
An image of Gesshin flattened against the wall of the hallway that morning popped into his head. "Hai."   
"That comes from me. Remember, my seishi trait was strength, something that's relatively easy to pass down. You inherited some of my strength. That's one way to recognize a seishi from my world, or a miko for that matter. If someone has read that Shi Jin whatever, they'll recognize certain aspects of the seishi's traits in the reincarnation. Their personalities will even be very similar, as ours are, and they'll look almost exactly the same. You can recognize the other reincarnated seishi in this world this way, most of the time."   
"What about the rest of the time?"   
"Let me ask another question. When you saw Taka and Miaka for the first time, did you feel anything?"   
Reijirou thought back to the day before. It seemed like an eternity ago. "Let's see… A little déjà vu, why?"   
Nuriko nodded. "That's the other way. When you first meet someone who's been in the other world with you, you'll know you know them from somewhere. You just don't know where."   
"That's a lot of knows and wheres." Reijirou grinned.   
"Hai." Nuriko grinned back.   
Risako laughed. "This will be interesting."   
"Oh, won't it though?" the two of them replied at the same time, then looked at each other and burst out laughing.   
"Quiet you clowns, you'll wake Miaka. Nuriko, something's been bothering me."   
"Nani?"   
"You're a... ghost, aren't you?" Risako asked.   
"I think 'spirit' or 'manifestation' are probably better words, but ghost works too."   
"Well, whatever you are, how did you and Miaka touch? You're almost see-through. Everything I've read has people passing right through ghosts. And if you're him and he's you, then how can you both be here at the same time and in the same place?" Poor Risako looked extremely confused, pointing at both Reijirou and Nuriko in such a way that her arms were crossed.   
Nuriko held up his arm, displaying his arm guards, which had not changed back into the bracelets. "I can touch real people and things because of these. When we were searching for the memory globes, I found that while my bracelets were in this shape I couldn't pass through things or people, and vice versa." He grinned. "I walked into a wall once before I knew. But it proved to be a very useful trait of these things. I had to restrain Taka while we tried to cure him of the parasite in his blood. I could carry my aniki Rokou, Tasuki, and Miaka all at the same time. I could even pound Tasuki into the wall." He brought his other hand up in front of his face, looking at his palms. "But I can't feel even when they're like this. To do that I have to possess someone. I was very grateful to the nyan-nyans for letting me use their bodies time and time again.   
"And as for why we can both be here, I'm not _exactly_ sure. We have the same soul. But I think our different upbringings in completely different ages and settings has put enough of a gap between us, as long as I stay in this form."   
"That makes more sense than it doesn't, I guess," Risako said with a thoughtful expression on her face.   
"Nuriko, will everyone be able to see you? It'll be kind of weird if all of a sudden there's this ghost image of me walking around wearing old Chinese clothes." This had been bothering Reijirou for awhile.   
Nuriko grinned and stood up. "Watch."   
He vanished.   
"YI!" Reijirou and Risako both jumped out of their chairs.   
Nuriko reappeared, laughing. "Don't worry! The only people who can see me are people who I want to see me. Someone could walk in that door at this very second-"   
The door opened.   
Reijirou and Risako burst out laughing at the shocked look on Nuriko's face, collapsing back in their chairs and holding their sides. "All right, what's so funny in here?" came Taka's voice. He walked in and shut the door, placing his briefcase next to the it. "Hello Daishi, Enomoto."   
"Hello Taka," they managed to get out as they tried to calm themselves. After a few seconds they got their breath back, and Reijirou noted a mischievous, impish grin on Nuriko's face, exactly like the one he himself used a lot.   
"It's just something Nuriko said," Risako said, answering Taka's question as Nuriko casually sauntered across the room and behind Taka.   
"_Nuriko?!_ Where?!" He spun around, looking in all directions for another head of violet hair, even behind him. It was pretty clear he saw nothing. Reijirou was suppressing laughter again. "Where?! Where's Nuriko?!"   
"Taaaaaaaaka-chan!" Nuriko flicked the back of Taka's head on "chan".   
Taka ended up flat on his face on the carpet. "_There's_ Nuriko," he remarked woozily.   
Nuriko knelt next to Taka, grinning. "I think I need to watch that from now on. Wouldn't do to scramble poor Taka's brains, now would it?" Reijirou and Risako were howling with laughter and coming close to falling out of their chairs.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"So that's what happened." Taka regarded Miaka with the same grim expression Nuriko had used earlier. He sighed heavily. "She never learned moderation."   
"Especially not where you or food was concerned," Nuriko piped up, grinning impishly again.   
"If it'd do any good I'd flatten you," Taka grumbled.   
"But it won't, so why bother?" Nuriko grinned. "And you wouldn't want to flatten your 'aniki', now would you?"   
"Remember, I DID flatten you. Multiple times."   
"Oh yeah."   
Reijirou and Risako were hiding laughter again. Things definitely weren't dull.   
Taka picked up his sleeping wife, blanket and all. "I'm going to put her to bed. She needs rest." He walked down the hall, careful not to jostle Miaka, and went into the same room Miaka had found the books in. Reijirou supposed it must be their bedroom.   
But at the current moment the three of them were alone, and he needed to ask a question he couldn't let Miaka or Taka hear. "Nuriko, you said others from the b- other world could be reborn here?"   
"Not could be. Were." Nuriko shrugged. "Otherwise this wouldn't be happening. The threat is something from there."   
Reijirou shuddered. He didn't want to think of that. "Were other members of the Suzaku no shichiseishi reborn?"   
"I think so, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't be."   
"Don't mention this to Taka or Miaka, but... would Tasuki have been?"   
Both Nuriko and Risako looked sharply at him, Nuriko's look suspicious, Risako's shock gradually being replaced by comprehension.   
"Why do you ask that?" Nuriko was wary.   
"Because I know someone… Looks like him, cusses like him, has an affinity with fire."   
"Reijirou-kun, do you mean…" Risako ventured.   
Reijirou nodded. "Yeah. Gesshin."   
Nuriko's look melted from suspicion to deliberation. "Possibly… No, almost definitely. Miaka was my greatest friend, and Tamahome my little brother, but Tasuki was like my playmate. We fought all the time yet had fun. It's quite possible. If Taka and Miaka are any sort of example, strong relationships from that world might've been passed down as well."   
Reijirou grinned ruefully. "This morning I bashed him into a wall. I'd say there's the same sort of thing with us as with you two."   
"If you do that with any frequency, then I'd say definitely." Nuriko grinned yet again. He seemed to like doing that. "Gods, that was fun. He'd say some of the stupidest stuff. He never really seemed to get why that was always happening. Poor boy could be dense as a plank when he wanted to be."   
Reijirou laughed and nodded. "Exactly."   
Nuriko rubbed his hands together, that mischievous grin back on his face. "I'd like to meet this Gesshin of yours. It should be interesting."   
"All right, but I have bashing rights on him. You can bash Tasuki if it turns out to be him."   
"Done." They grinned at each other. _Really,_ Reijirou thought, _once you get over the shock, it's pretty fun meeting someone who's almost the same as you._   
The door opened again. Reijirou turned to see Naora skip in, holding a large jar with a beautiful blue butterfly in it. "Mama! Papa! Look what Uncle Keisuke got for me! And we had hot dogs! Reijirou-san!" Naora ran to him again and hugged him around the knees. "You're still here!" She ran over to Risako and hugged her, too. "And you, nice lady! What's your name, nice lady?"   
Risako smiled down at the little girl. "Risako."   
Naora grinned. "Risako-san! Reijirou-san and Risako-san are still here Uncle Keisuke!"   
"I know, I know." Keisuke walked in, his jacket slung over his shoulder, shutting the door and locking it. "Hello you two. Where're Taka and Miaka?"   
It was fairly obvious that neither of them could see Nuriko, who was staring at Naora. "Miaka isn't feeling well, so Taka's putting her in bed." Risako deliberately avoided details, not wanting to worry Naora. "She tried to do too much today and got tired."   
Keisuke nodded, a flash of understanding in his eyes. "Hai, she always overreaches herself. Come on, Naora-chan, go get on your pajamas."   
"Hai!" She ran down the hall, obviously not worried, carrying the butterfly jar like a precious treasure and disappearing into the room next to Miaka and Taka's.   
"She's adorable," Nuriko said softly, watching the door to Naora's room, hands clasped in front of his face. "So kawaii."   
Keisuke looked in the direction the voice had come from, grinning knowingly. "So there you are."   
Reijirou blinked. "You can see him now?"   
Keisuke nodded. "I couldn't when I first came in, but now I can." He turned to Nuriko. "Hello there, I'm Yuki Keisuke." He extended a hand in the seishi's direction.   
Nuriko took it and shook. "I thought so. Sorry we haven't gotten the chance to meet before."   
"Keisuke, why weren't you startled when Nuriko suddenly appeared?" Risako was baffled.   
Keisuke shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "Miaka told what she was going to try today. I told her she shouldn't, cause she still hasn't fully recovered from yesterday yet."   
Nuriko grinned. "She never listened to you before, why should she start now?"   
Keisuke grinned back. "Exactly. So when I heard she'd done too much and felt bad – which I assume meaning she collapsed-" the others nodded "-it wasn't hard to put two and two together. Welcome, Nuriko-kun."   
"Keisuke?" Taka stepped back into the room. "It is you. Where's Naora-chan?"   
"She's changing for bed. She wants to tell you all about her day at the park."   
"Hai, with the uncle who spoils her rotten."   
Keisuke grinned again, guiltily. "She's my only niece, what else am I supposed to do?"   
"Um, excuse me," Nuriko called, waving his arms. "Question over here."   
"Nani, Nuriko-kun?" Keisuke asked.   
Taka looked at him in surprise.   
Nuriko sighed in exasperation. "Yes, he can see me. Taka, is Miaka better?"   
He nodded. "She will be. She woke up while I was putting her in bed. We talked a little. She said she wanted to call you today so you and Reijirou could have, and I quote, 'as much time as I can possibly give them.'"   
Reijirou sighed. "Time for _what_, though?"   
Taka glanced at him. "Time to get used to working together, I suppose. And time to find out exactly _what_ is going on."   
Risako cleared her throat. "Umm, excuse me, not to be rude or anything, but where do I fit in here?"   
The others looked at her silently for a second. Nuriko and Taka glanced at each other and nodded. "We're not exactly sure," began Taka, "not even Miaka is, but you will be a driving force in it."   
"Me? A driving force?"   
"Hai. One of your decisions could change everything that happens." Nuriko said, gently but firmly.   
Risako could only stare at him in surprise.   
"But that's for another day," Keisuke said, breaking the tension in the room. "Nuriko-kun, what are you going to do in the meantime?"   
Nuriko grinned impishly again. Reijirou was beginning to understand the dread he saw on his family's faces whenever he did that himself. "I'm going to see how the new me lives."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Hee hee hee hee hee... stay tuned! Sorry about the extended explanation and intense cheesiness and if Nuriko was out of character (which he probably was)! Ja mata!   


"The Grim Reaper should update! It's 1997. Get the scythe, throw it away, and get a _LAWNMOWER!_" - Eddie Izzard   
"'This is your pilot speaking. Welcome to flight, uh, one :pause: from Here to There. We're going to be flying at a height of ten feet :pause: going up to twelve and a half feet :pause: if we see anything big. Your copilot today :short pause: is a thermos of coffee'." - Eddie Izzard (again)

  



	7. Chapter 7

  
DISCALIMER: I do not own Fushigi Yugi, but I love it. I also do not own your reviews, but I love them too! (Hint hint not-so-subtle hint.)   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's finally spring ^_^ ~huddles in her blanket~ Then why is it so damn COLD?! Just above freezing all yesterday! Kaze-chan Popcicle! O.O And this is the south, for gods' sakes!   
Actually, the south is good for some things. Like growing Japanese trees. We have a lot of them. We have a Japanese maple, a weeping cherry, and a yoshino (I think it's called that, I'm not sure). I'm fairly sure the yoshino is the cherry tree that the sakura petals fall from every year; in any case, when it gets warm enough (usually in April) our yoshino blooms with thousands of pink petals that last for only a few days. It's planted very close to the sidewalk, so it's easily visible from the street; I love driving up and seeing the big pink snowball (as I used to call it). Then the wind blows and the petals just come dancing down... I would swear that if you lay there long enough you'd be buried in pink petals. It's so pretty. Although they don't like coming out of my hair! ^_^   
This chappie is for l. and kourin. Thank you so much! ~major hugs~ You guys and the other reviewers keep me going. I know this story looks a lot like some others, but I'm glad some people are still willing to give it a chance. I love you all! And now, on with the chapter! Good LORD I need more sleep...   
  


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"SUGOI!" Nuriko yelled from the backseat of the convertible. "This is so much faster than a horse! And smoother!"   
"Having fun Nuriko?" Reijirou called back over the wind, grinning.   
"WAI!"   
Risako laughed. "I guess so."   
Nuriko was half-standing in order to see over the windshield, bracing himself on the headrests, watching buildings and lampposts and other cars go whizzing by at astonishing speeds. The wind didn't seem to affect him, and he was laughing like a little kid at this new, exhilarating experience.   
"Reijirou-kun, can I ask you a question?" Risako piped up.   
"Why not?" Reijirou picked up speed and passed a slow-moving truck.   
"Reijirou, can I do this sometime?!"   
"IYA!" they both yelled at Nuriko.   
"Aww, damn." Nuriko sat down again with a huff.   
Reijirou shuddered. "He'd be worse than Chiaki… What's your question, Risako-san?"   
"Why didn't you want Taka and Miaka to know about Gesshin?"   
Reijirou sighed. He'd been expecting something like this. "Remember the mugger yesterday?"   
"'Course."   
"That was him."   
"NANI?!"   
"Hai, that was Ijiri Gesshin. I didn't realize it myself until I heard him yell – and cuss." He smiled ironically into the review mirror. "That baseball cap hid his hair and face really well."   
She whistled. "No kidding. Damn, I didn't recognize him at all…"   
"I was scared you would. Yesterday I really did catch him, and I beat him up pretty bad for hurting an innocent woman. I started carrying him back, but he kept pleading and finally I let him go. He won't do it again, I know."   
"Why'd you let him go?! He needed to be turned over to the police! He's the one who hurt Miaka!"   
Reijirou sighed again. "You don't know him. I was going to turn him in, but I know him too well to think he _meant_ to hurt her. He showed up at my house this morning, and we had a real long talk... after I again threatened to turn him in. He'd only done it to get some money and pay his rent."   
"Couldn't he get a job instead? Why'd he try to _steal?_"   
"It's a long story." He grimaced. "See, when he was eleven, before I met him, his mom ran off with this other man, leaving him and his little sister with their father. His father had never really been able to hold a steady job, and they always barely scraped by. But after his wife left, Ijiri-san took to drinking after work. Not much at first, but it gradually got worse, and a couple years later when I first met Gesshin he was a full drunkard. Gesshin was taking it upon himself to take care of his father and sister, got a part-time job even though he was too young. His father still worked, but more and more frequently forgot to pay the rent on their apartment and went on drinking binges. Their place is a pigsty, bottles everywhere. Gesshin's smart, and he passed the entrance exams to get into our high school with me helping him, but he dropped out soon after to work more. He shielded Mitsuyo, his younger sister, from the worst of their father, but soon after Gesshin dropped out Ijiri-san began hitting him. For the past year and a half he's been working as a short-order cook, scraping by on the rent. Mitsuyo managed to stay in school, and she's doing pretty well, in high school now, but Gesshin lost his job a couple weeks ago. That's why he tried to steal Miaka's purse."   
Risako and Nuriko had remained silent, slightly in shock. "But… Can't anyone help?" Risako asked, her voice quivering.   
Reijirou shook his head. "I've tried to give him money in the past. Gesshin won't accept charity. Calls it pity. He refuses to move out until he can take Mitsuyo with him, and also refuses to go back to school. He's afraid the drunkard will go after her. He's looking for a new job now, but it's going slow. And so…"   
"He did the only thing he could think of to help his sister," Nuriko remarked quietly.   
"Hai."   
"Red hair… bad language… strong sense of loyalty… thievery… I'd say you're right, Reijirou." Nuriko looked up at the lampposts speeding by overhead. "He has to be Tasuki. There's no other explanation."   
"That's what I thought." Reijirou's voice was grim. "You two don't say anything to him about this. He doesn't like people to know. He'd probably kill me if he knew I'd told you. And Nuriko, NO appearing to him before Miaka explains everything. He's liable to go through the window if you do!"   
Nuriko giggled. "That's Tasuki, all right."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
A few minutes later, Reijirou pulled up to Risako's apartment building. She opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, reaching in the back to get her backpack. "Arigato Reijirou-kun. I could've walked, but this was faster."   
"No problem. See you in class tomorrow?"   
She grinned. "Hai. And don't forget the reading!" she chanted in a sing-song tone.   
He groaned. "You _had_ to say that, didn't you?"   
"'Course! Sayonara!" She waved and disappeared into the building.   
"Ne, Reijirou," came Nuriko's voice above his head. Reijirou looked up and his jaw dropped as he saw Nuriko sitting cross-legged in the air over the passenger's seat.   
"D-D-Did I know you could do that?"   
Nuriko grinned and floated down into the seat. "Iya. It's easier to move around like this when the bracelets are just bracelets." Reijirou glanced at Nuriko's wrists and saw the bracelets had indeed returned to their original state. "Can I ask you a question?"   
"As long as you don't start floating again, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"   
Nuriko laughed. "No promises, remember it _is_ easier for me." Reijirou groaned. "Go on then." He pulled away from the building, mentally trying to review the directions Risako had given him back to the university. He knew his way home from there.   
"Why do you still use san and kun with each other?"   
"Who, me and Risako?"   
"Hai."   
Reijirou shrugged and made a left. "We don't know each other that well. We knew each other slightly in high school, I had a couple classes with her, but we didn't do anything together. Yesterday she was the only one I knew in Taka's class, and I was the only one she knew, so we started talking and sort of… ended tangled up in this."   
Nuriko gave him a sideways glance. "Well, I'd get to know her better. If the feeling on this is any indication, we'll be working with her a lot on this. Remember what Taka said she was."   
"'A driving force,'" Reijirou repeated grimly, swinging a hard right.   
"Hai. She'll be important. How well you know her may be the difference between life and death." Nuriko looked up at the sky. "I can't see our stars. There's so much light here, in…"   
"Tokyo," Reijirou supplied.   
Nuriko nodded. "Tokyo. It obscures the stars, turns the black sky gray. I used to be able to look up and see all seven of the Suzaku constellations, but here… I've been trying, but it hasn't happened."   
"Light pollution." Reijirou sighed. "Where we lived on Hokkaido until I was ten, it was kind of small, not much light. There was this big open field, and sometimes our entire family would take blankets out there for the night, and lie on them and sky watch."   
"That sounds like fun." Nuriko smiled wistfully. "After Kourin died, no one in my family seemed to want to do those kinds of things. We drifted apart a lot. Even Rokou and I seemed to be more separated. Although we still loved each other very much, my becoming Kourin seemed to scare him a little."   
"I don't think I blame him," Reijirou muttered.   
Nuriko grinned. "I heard that. Oh well, can't change the past."   
"Iya. We're almost home, just a few more minutes." They'd just passed the university.   
Nuriko punched him lightly on the shoulder. "It's not fair. You know so much about me, but I don't know anything about you. Care to share?"   
Reijirou shrugged. "Why not? I'm 19, in college now, have an older sister named Chiaki and a younger brother named Hajime." Reijirou glanced at Nuriko. "I should probably warn you. Chiaki and I are very close, and look a lot alike."   
Nuriko gaped slightly. "Kourin…"   
"Hai, it's possible. I'm not certain. Will you know?"   
"Definitely."   
There was something in Nuriko's voice that Reijirou couldn't identify. He briefly looked at him, then turned his attention back to the road. "I'm not really a school person, but I'm good at English and other languages. In high school I ran track and swam. We moved here from Hokkaido when I was ten because my father got a job transfer. That's the basics."   
Nuriko grinned impishly. "What, no girlfriend?"   
"Iya!" Reijirou tried to whack him, but his hand went right through Nuriko's head as Nuriko grinned even more mischievously. "I'm too busy."   
"Well maybe Risako-"   
"Go after her yourself if you're so interested."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Mom! Hajime! I'm home!" Reijirou swung open the door to the apartment and went in, Nuriko floating along behind him (which still kind of freaked him out).   
"Hello, Reijirou-kun." His father called, folding a newspaper.   
"Hi Dad, how'd it go at work today?" He walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, Nuriko still behind him and looking around at everything with much interest. Reijirou had to keep reminding himself to act normal; after all, his father couldn't see his new "twin" that was ghosting about the apartment.   
"Not bad. Lost an account, but got two more, so they're not that mad."   
Reijirou grinned as he poured his coffee. "Advertising is hell, that's why I'm not doing it."   
"We'll see, we'll see. I think there's dinner in the fridge for you."   
"Sugoi! I'm starving." He opened the fridge, Nuriko watching with great interest, and pulled out the plate of chicken and mashed potatoes that was sitting on the bottom shelf. "She forgot again." He also pulled out a small bag of shredded cheddar cheese and dumped a liberal amount on the potatoes.   
His father grimaced. "She didn't forget, she knows no one else in the family likes that! She spared us this time."   
Reijirou grinned and put the plate in the microwave, setting it on high for two and a half minutes. Nuriko bent over and watched the plate spin round and round in the black box with fascination. "Right. Did I get any phone calls or mail today?"   
"Iie. Apparently Gesshin was here early this afternoon, though, he left a note."   
"Where?"   
"Under there." His father pointed to the same large photo magnet that had concealed Chiaki's note that morning. Reijirou pried it off the door for the second time that day and caught the falling piece of paper. "I am so gonna toss this thing," he muttered at the magnet, before unfolding the paper. Halfway through he whooped.   
"What is it?" His father asked, opening the newspaper again.   
"He's got a new job! One of the places near the university took him."   
"That's good."   
The microwave dinged, making Nuriko yelp and jump back in surprise. Reijirou muffled laughter and glanced at his father, but he was happily ensconced in his paper again and didn't look like he'd heard anything unusual. Reijirou guessed that Nuriko could be inaudible as well as invisible to who he wanted. Handy, especially if he was gonna keep exclaiming about modern conveniences. Reijirou pulled the plate out, grabbed a fork, knife, and napkin, and headed down the hall to his room to eat and do the reading for Taka's class.   
He didn't make it. Halfway there the door to Hajime's room flew open, spilling his little brother and two friends Katai and Shirai into the hallway. "Aniki! Aniki! Come listen to us!" Hajime was excited, his light brown hair spilling into his wide green eyes. "You said you would, and we have the concert tomorrow!"   
Reijirou grinned. "Let me eat first, I'll be done in about 15 minutes, all right?"   
"Hai!" The light brown and two dark blond heads disappeared back into the room, shutting the door behind them to muffle the noise.   
"Ne, Reijirou…" Nuriko said.   
"What?" He looked back at Nuriko inquisitively.   
Nuriko just shook his head. "Never mind, it's not important."   
Reijirou shrugged. "If you say so." He started walking again, arriving in his room with no further interruptions. Nuriko drifted in, trying to look in all directions at once as Reijirou suppressed laughter, closing the door, setting his plate on his desk and sitting in the chair. "Nothing like two dinners." He mixed the cheese into the potatoes and began to eat quickly, watching Nuriko.   
Nuriko was looking at everything: the posters of his favorite bands on the wall, the shelf of books over the bed, the other shelf over the desk that held the track and swimming trophies and medals, the desk and all its strange implements, the photos of famous athletes, the picture from the senior dance in high school (where Reijirou had actually enjoyed wearing a tux), a photo of he and Chiaki goofing off at a hamburger stand, trying to squirt each other with the ketchup and mustard. He was floating every which way so fast it looked like he was flying, and he exclaimed loudly over everything he saw. The bracelets morphed into the arm guards as he came to Reijirou's open closet and started pawing through it, marveling at the clothes and shoes.   
Reijirou grinned and walked over to the closet, pulling out a shortish yellow jacket. "Here, try it on."   
"Really? Thanks!" Nuriko grabbed it out of his hands and walked over to the mirror on the wall, pulling the jacket on quickly. It fit him well, and he stood grinning at his reflection in the mirror. "I could get used to it here."   
"That might not be a bad thing. C'mon, lemme have it back." Reijirou held out his hand for the jacket, beckoning at him. Nuriko reluctantly took it off and handed it to him, but watched with interest as he pulled a hanger off the bar and put the jacket on it. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at the hanger.   
"Oh, this? This is a coat hanger," Reijirou said. "We put clothes on it that we don't want to get creased or wrinkled."   
"That's a good idea, all we had were drawers. My dresses always had these great big folds in them after they came out."   
"I bet." He turned away. Reijirou was still having trouble with the fact that Nuriko had been, in essence, a girl for eight years. He couldn't picture it. He shook his head slightly and stuck the hanger back in the closet.   
"Nani, Reijirou?" Nuriko asked, sounding serious. For once.   
"Nothing."   
Nuriko snorted. "Remember, I'm you, so I know you're lying. Now, let's see, what could you be upset about now… Ah, yes. My living as a woman." Reijirou turned back and blinked at Nuriko, who grinned widely. "I understand, Reijirou. After all, it IS kind of weird, someone being so distraught over their sister's death that they literally _become_ her. But it was the only thing I could think of, and no one could stop me. So I was Kourin. For a good eight years Ryuen didn't exist. It was my choice. You're you. You never had to deal with loss like I did, and so you can't imagine doing what I did. That's one of the great differences between us." He punched him lightly in the arm again. "So don't worry about it. I may talk about it sometimes, but I'm like I am when I died, and when I died I was Ryuen again. In other words, _male_. So I won't be showing up in makeup or prancing around in dresses. Or trying to make _you_ do it." His grin widened. "Who knows, I might even decide to chase after some cute girl."   
Reijirou threw back his head and laughed. "THAT I'll believe when I see!"   
"Nii-chan!" The door to his room burst open, and Hajime ran in. "It's been 15 minutes! You ready _yet_?!"   
"Hai, hai, I'll be right there!"   
"Wai!" Hajime ran back to his room.   
Nuriko blinked at Reijirou. "What're those three doing again?"   
"Their band concert is tomorrow night. I think they have solos, so they're rehearsing together."   
"What's 'band'?"   
"A very large group of people playing instruments, or a group of professionals. In this case, band generally sounds bad, but they have fun."   
"Then let's go listen."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou had to admit that Hajime and his friends were pretty good, which was probably the reason they were playing the solos. They were short by quite a few instruments to be able to play the entire song, but each demonstrated their own solo admirably, Hajime on saxophone, Shirai on trumpet, and Katai on flute. Reijirou sat on Hajime's bed and applauded after each one finished, while Nuriko sat beside him and watched with an interesting expression on his face, half intrigue and half studious observation.   
As soon as he was able Reijirou slipped out, the reading weighing heavily on his mind. He wanted to get it over with before midnight.   
"Reijirou," Nuriko said after they were in his room with the door closed. "Do you realize that those kids are Amiboshi and Suboshi?"   
"NANI?!"   
"I thought so when I first saw them, but now I'm sure. They're the Seiryu twins."   
"But… but…" Reijirou stuttered, then groaned. "How much else is gonna happen to me today?"   
"You never know until the day is over."   
"So what do we do with them?"   
"What else? We tell Miaka, and ask her if she can bring Yui over soon."   
"Nani?" Reijirou was confused again. "Why Yui?"   
"Amiboshi and Suboshi were Seiryu seishi. Only the Seiryu no Miko can call them into this world. That means Yui."   
"This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger…"   
"Reijirou!" his father called. "Gesshin's here again!"   
"Hey man!" Gesshin exclaimed, bursting into the room almost before Enomoto-san had finished speaking. "Look!" He held up a shiny laminated card, which had a fairly bad digital photo of him on it. "It's the badge fer my new job! Pretty cool, if I do say so m'self."   
"Just don't start any fires there, all right? I eat there sometimes," Reijirou remarked dryly.   
"Hey, those weren't my fault man! Things jus' seem to keep goin' up in flames!"   
"Like your hair!" Nuriko piped up from his corner.   
"The fuck?!" Gesshin swung around to face Nuriko, who waved at him cheerfully.   
"YAAAAAA!" Gesshin jumped, falling out Reijirou's fortunately open window.   
Reijirou and Nuriko leaned out the window side by side as they heard him splat on the sidewalk just a floor below.   
"Nuriko, what did I ask you not to do?"   
"Appear to him?"   
"Bingo."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou knelt on the ground next to Gesshin, looking him over. He'd be a bit black and blue in the morning, but other than that, and the fact that he'd been knocked out (which Reijirou didn't think would do anything to him, he had a very hard head) he was fine. "Why'd you do that?" he asked, as he picked up his friend's unconscious form and began walking into the building.   
"I wanted to see if he'd really go out the window." Nuriko grinned. "He's as predictable as Tasuki."   
Reijirou laughed. "I can't say I blame you. That was classic."   
"Reijirou?! What happened to Gesshin?!" his sister's voice called to him from the curb. A car was pulling into the street behind her. Reijirou couldn't see who was driving, but he suspected it was that guy Suezo.   
"Idiot fell out my window."   
"Oh, is that all?"   
"Hai." They grinned at each other as Chiaki walked up to him and Nuriko.   
Reijirou heard a sharp intake of breath from his "twin". "Kourin…"   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yes, we know, I am the Incarnation of Pure Evil. Hee hee hee hee hee...   
Teenage boys are nothing but bottomless food pits.   
Is it just me or did this chapter move too fast? Eh well, I'll do better next time. If you have any questions about anything, ask me! ^_^   
One last thing. Just a quick poll. How old do you guys think I am? I'm actually pretty interested in these sorts of things. I have this obsession with knowing everyone's ages and knowing the time, but that's beside the point. Whenever I ask this question I get varying responses, and it always amuses me. So what about it? How old am I? ^_^ Ja mata!   
PS-- If you know my age (Mousie, Bashou, Rabbit, etc...) don't say ANYTHING! Or face the threat of being thwapped! 


	8. Chapter 8

  
DISCLAIMER: I own purple hair spray. I own a purple bandana. But as much as I wish I do not own purple hair. Therefore I do not own Nuriko. Therefore I do not own FY. Make sense?   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: The yoshino's starting to bloom. It finally feels like spring. Soon it'll be covered in little pink blossoms, and then they'll start falling like snow... It's so pretty.   
~pulls her nose out of The Anime Companion: What's Japanese in Japanese Animation~ Whoops, sorry. But this is pretty fascinating. All these little cultural things... For instance, I have finally confirmed my months-long suspicion that Japanese school begins in the spring (I know I proably could've asked any number of people this, including several people I know in RL, but there's a limit to how dumb I'm willing to look ^_^). So I have officially set the time of this story sometime in April, most likely mid-April.   
Also, I made a sort of unintentional mistake. I name these guys from a site that has real Japanese names (male, female, and family), and when they say real they mean REAL. It turns out Reijjie-chan's last name, Enomoto, is the last name of a famous comedian who died in the mid-70s. -_-() Trust me, I had no idea about it when I named him that, I just thought "Enomoto Reijirou" sounded cool. I actually kinda like the coincidence... so don't be surprised if a reference pops up at some point in the future ^_~ Well, read on, and thank you all for sticking with me! ~huggles~   
Oh yes, Mikka-chan, don't worry. I DETEST when people hook up original characters with series characters (unless they're incredibly well done, I admit I've enjoyed one or two of those) so I will be staying faaaaaaaaar away. Basically I was like "OK, there's no way the book-peeps are gonna ALL be friends already or those're gonna be the ONLY friends they have." So Risa-chan started just as a non-book friend, and one of my personal crusades to prove that guys and girls can indeed be friends. ~shrugs~ Then I got to enjoy writing her and kept her in. I need to rewrite some stuff to make SURE no one can mistake friendship for something else, but it's gonna be friendship! That's all! ~glomps Mikka-chan~ Hope that settles your worried mind ~grins~   
Excelcia: Sorry I didn't get this out earlier, I'm trying to balance uploads with Market (one every other week) and whenever I come up with something else, which hasn't been for awhile, I stick that up as well. So I don't update this (or anything else) but maybe once every two weeks ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I'm sorry! I might step up my upload schedule, but my life's getting complicated real soon... I'll work on it! I promise! ~glomps~   
Waku-chan, you rock, you know that? ^______^ Honestly, you rock. I'm so sorry I've never thanked you before, but THANK YOU SO MUCH for reviewing! You are the greatest! ~glomps~   
~scoots away from Gohanzgirl~ Someone's had too much sugar... ah, sugar be damned ~grins and glomps~ Going mad is perfectly prohibited, as long as someone's by you with a handy straight jacket. Hope you still like it in a few chapters!   
  


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_No. Please, don't Nuriko, don't appear, don't talk to her, I can't carry both her and Gesshin!_ Reijirou pleaded silently.   
Nuriko simply stood and stared at Chiaki, who was still grinning at Reijirou. "Come on Reijirou-chan, you can put him on the couch till he wakes up."   
"I'll put him on my bed, it'll be fine." Reijirou resumed trudging into the building, thanking Suzaku and Seiryu and Byakko and Genbu and any other god he could think of for Nuriko's silence, even if it was due to shock. Nuriko floated along behind them, still staring at Chiaki, while he and Chiaki walked into the building and up the stairs to their second-floor apartment. Reijirou had an awkward time getting Gesshin's unconscious form around some of the turns, but with Chiaki's help he managed. She opened the door for him and he went in sideways, nearly cracking Gesshin's head on the doorframe, but not quite.   
"Reijirou-kun, what did Gesshin do this time?" His father had not missed the fact that Gesshin was coming in the door again. Without having gone out it in the first place.   
"Fell out my window," Reijirou grunted, his back starting to ache. "I'm gonna put him in my room." Chiaki stayed behind to talk to their father, while Reijirou and Nuriko continued down the hall to Reijirou's room.   
He unceremoniously dumped his unconscious friend on his bed, then shut the door and looked at Nuriko. "Hello, Earth to Nuriko."   
"Kourin…"   
"Ne, anyone in there?" Reijirou waved his hand in front of Nuriko's eyes. The seishi blinked and his eyes focused again, and he smiled apologetically. "Gomen."   
"Ne, I understand how you're feeling, and it's completely and totally logical, but can I ask you one favor?"   
"What?"   
"PLEASE! Don't do that again!"   
"Wha?"   
"Don't just appear! Look, I've been thinking about this, and it seems to me that even IF Gesshin and Katai and Shirai ARE Tasuki and Amiboshi and Suboshi, that doesn't mean they have to know it."   
Nuriko blinked. "What do you mean?"   
Reijirou sat in his desk chair again, turning on the stereo to a quiet volume. He couldn't think in absolute silence. "I think I mean… Miaka said this would involve _us_. Not anyone else. Well, Risako too, but none of the other seishi, Suzaku or Seiryu- uh, Nuriko? What're you doing?" Nuriko was watching the stereo and playing with the little buttons. He squinted at it up close, then pulled back his arm as if to punch it.   
"IYA!" Reijirou jumped in front of the stereo, arms stretched out to his sides, guarding the stereo with his life.   
"Why not? I want to see what's inside."   
"Not with MY stereo. Did you hear what I was saying?"   
"I think I got lost somewhere around 'anyone else', would you mind starting over again?"   
Reijirou groaned, wondering if he'd have to put Nuriko in a blank white box to be able to have an intelligent conversation with him. "Miaka didn't say that any of the other seishi, Suzaku or Seiryu, were going to be involved, or their modern counterparts. So why 'wake them up'?"   
"Huh. You have a point." Nuriko leaned against the desk, looking at his feet, eyes slightly narrowed in concentration.   
"Why do it? It'll just cause more confusion. Or more scenes like the one we just had with Gesshin. Or I'll get slapped in a nuthouse."   
"What's a nuthouse?"   
"A place they keep crazy people so they can't hurt anyone."   
"Oh." Nuriko looked at his feet again. Reijirou watched him anxiously. The only sound in the room was the stereo, which had stopped on a boring news station. "I guess…" Nuriko said after a minute, "that we shouldn't start more than we can handle… If you're any indication, people will have a hard time accepting it. You're doing surprisingly well, but even you're having problems."   
Reijirou nodded. "I can tell you for sure that Gesshin at least will have a much harder time accepting it."   
Nuriko sighed. "Just like Tasuki. I guess you're right. The fewer people involved, the better. Especially if they don't _need_ to be involved." Nuriko glanced up, slowly looking around Reijirou's room. "I- gomen, _you_ have a happy, normal life here. I suppose everyone else who was reincarnated here does. You have lives, families…" Reijirou watched Nuriko silently. The seishi had a sad, longing look on his face. "You have a normal life, something we didn't have in the other world. At least until I showed up." He looked up at Reijirou, smiling sadly. "I don't want to take that away from anyone else unless we have to."   
Reijirou smiled back. "Thanks. I think they'd appreciate that if they knew."   
A groan from the bed brought them back to the present. They both looked at the prostrate figure of Gesshin, who was slowly twitching back to life.   
"Meanwhile, help me figure out what to tell this bozo here."   
"What's a bozo?"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Gesshin? Hey Gesshin, wake up man." Reijirou gently slapped Gesshin's face. "Wake up. You hit pretty hard there, but I don't think you hurt yourself too bad."   
"Huh? Whuzzat? Where is he?" Gesshin slowly sat up with Reijirou's help, rubbing his head, blinking, looking around the room. "Where's th' ghost?"   
"Ghost?" Reijirou blinked. "What're you talking about man?"   
"There was this transparent see-through thingamajig in yer corner! He looked like- like ya! In weird clothing!"   
"Nani? You're not talking sense man. I'm here in front of you." Reijirou deeply hoped his confused face was convincing.   
"I fuckin' saw it! It waved at me! I wen' out the damn window man!"   
"Uhh, Gesshin…"   
"WHAT?!"   
"You whacked your head on the door when you came barging in here. Pretty hard. You knocked yourself out," Reijirou said with what he hoped was infinite patience. He could see Nuriko in the corner, both hands clapped over his mouth and shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. _Just stay quiet Nuriko. And stay invisible!_   
"I… hit m' head on the door?" Gesshin put one hand on his head, feeling the lump, which, fortunately, was in front. He looked up at Reijirou again. "I saw that thing…" he said, although he sounded very uncertain.   
Reijirou stepped back to allow him full visual access of the room. "Gesshin, there's nothing to see."   
Gesshin slowly looked around several times, more confused than ever. "I thought…"   
"It must've been a dream, or a hallucination, there was this super crack when you hit. You've gotta be more careful running around here. Come on, I'll take you home." Reijirou helped his still dazed friend off the bed. Gesshin blinked and looked around the room again. They went out the door, Gesshin looking at it in confusion. Reijirou sneaked a quick peak down the hall, and gently breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his father and Chiaki were gone. Nuriko floated along behind them, humming happily to himself and watching with amusement. They went out the apartment and down the stairs, Gesshin recovering enough to walk on his own. However, when they got to the parking lot, the little convertible was gone.   
"Aw shit, Chiaki must've taken it," Reijirou grumbled. "Can you walk to your place man?"   
"'Course I can, I ain't a weaklin'."   
"I'll keep you company." They turned out of the apartment onto the sidewalk, in the direction of Gesshin's building.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The walk, though fairly long, was uneventful. Gesshin only stumbled once or twice at the beginning, then walked with most of his usual swagger. Reijirou and Gesshin hashed over unimportant things like baseball, music, and cars while Nuriko kept himself invisible and listened interestedly. The Ijiri family's apartment was in a pretty run-down, depressing section of town, and privately Reijirou shuddered every time he entered. It wasn't that he was disgusted by the condition of the area, but rather that more "bad guys" seemed to hang around that area than almost anywhere else. However, it was the only thing Gesshin could afford. And even that might fall through if he didn't get a paycheck soon.   
Reijirou saw his friend to the door of his building, then said good night to him and turned back towards his home, wearing a thoughtful expression on his face.   
"Nani, Reijirou?" Nuriko asked, floating down beside him.   
"I'm wondering if I have enough money to sneak in Gesshin's rent to the landlord. He won't make that deadline."   
"It'd be nice if you did." Nuriko glanced back at the building. It was a five-story faded brick in obvious disrepair. "It'd be nice if they could move out of there all together."   
"He's too stubborn. And he can't-"   
"Hey baby, where're ya goin'?" There was a sudden stench of alcohol as they passed an alleyway. "Ye're dressed kinda nice for this neck of the woods. Why don't ya come down 'ere wif me and we'll see if ye're that nice under 'em." A guy in his late twenties, obviously drunk, stumbled out of the alley towards Reijirou, who simply glared at him coldly.   
"What did you say?"   
"I said come down 'ere and le's 'ave some fun." He reached out a hand for Reijirou's jacket.  
  
Quick as a flash Reijirou grabbed his arm and wrenched it up behind the drunkard's back, yanking until he heard several popping sounds. "I'm not that kind of guy. Now, again, what did you say?"   
"YE'RE A GUY?! IIITTAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIII!" The drunk screamed as Reijirou wrenched harder.   
"You better fucking believe it." Reijirou whirled, taking the drunk with him, slamming the guy's head into the wall. He let go of his arm and the drunk slumped to the ground, a little trickle of blood beginning to run down his face from his temple. Reijirou walked away, dusting his hands off on his jacket.   
"That was pretty good," Nuriko commented, drifting along beside him.   
"I've gotten it before in this area. Never from the same one twice though." Reijirou smiled humorlessly.   
"So that's why you don't like being taken for a girl."   
"Pretty much, yeah. I got it at work once also. Don't think that guy ever came back. It mostly happens here."   
"Lucky you." Nuriko drifted back to inspect the unconscious drunk. Reijirou stopped at the next alley, waiting for him.   
"Hey, bub." An unfamiliar voice, half-growl, came from the shadows. Reijirou spun and went immediately on the defense, arm levered to punch hard if needed. "You don't need to do that. Just wanted to say you did a pretty good job taking out that guy." The voice's owner emerged from the alley.   
Reijirou looked up. And up. And up. The guy had to be at least six and a half feet tall, with the build of a professional wrestler. He looked half-feral. And dangerous.   
"You'd be pretty good in a fight, for all you're small. Want to work for me?"   
"I've got a job, thanks."   
"Too bad. Then we'll have to do this the hard way."   
Down the street, Nuriko looked up from his inspection, sensing something he sure as hell didn't like. "Holy Suzaku, _**RUN REIJIROU!!!!**_"   
Reijirou quickly spun on his heels and fled, sprinting as hard and as fast as he'd ever done before. Harder, even. He leapt benches and drunks and dogs, not risking so much as a glance behind him. Nuriko appeared, speeding next to him. It didn't seem to affect him. "You're a lot faster than I was!"   
"I don't… think this… is the time… for compliments!" Reijirou gasped, saving as much air as he could for running. "Where… is he?"   
Nuriko turned and immediately paled. "Reijirou, run. Fast."   
Reijirou gritted his teeth and ran with all his might. He could hear the big man running behind him, but it didn't sound right. It sounded like he was running on all fours. He wasn't getting far enough away from him. He needed more speed. More speed. More…   
He didn't see the large hole in the sidewalk. Nuriko, who'd been flying backwards to keep tabs on the pursuer, saw too late to warn him. Reijirou's right foot came down half-in and half-out of the hole, throwing him off balance and sending him rolling end over side over end down the sidewalk for a good ten feet before he skidded to a stop, lying on his back. He had no time to recover before his assailant was on him, one massive hand pressed hard against his throat.   
"That was quite a chase, boy. Thanks for the exercise." He pressed harder, his other hand holding down Reijirou's right arm. Reijirou tried with his free arm to pry the massive hand that was more like a paw off his throat. He couldn't budge it. This was a bad time for his strength to fail him. Very bad. But he refused to give up.   
"You're… pretty… strong," he managed to get out. "Why… are you… going… after… me?"   
"What, poor boy doesn't remember?" the animal-man sneered. "Doesn't remember how he burned me, then killed me in the snow? Well, I'll teach you to remember." He took his hand off Reijirou's arm, and immediately brought it down again, swiping along Reijirou's torso.   
The fire of fierce pain bloomed and Reijirou screamed as thunder cracked overhead. There was no reason to pretend it didn't hurt. The animal-man knew it did. _Wait… growl… claws… feral… huge… burned… killed…_   
"REIJIROU! IT'S ASHITARE!" Nuriko screamed as Reijirou put the pieces together himself.   
"Ashi… tare!" Reijirou gasped through the pain.   
"Aw, now he remembers. Better continue the lesson to make sure it sticks, though." His bloody hand – _my blood_ – swept down again, leaving five new gashes in Reijirou's upper arm. Reijirou screamed again. Blood ran in rivulets through the gashes in the leather of his jacket. Reijirou could feel himself growing weaker. His struggle was getting feeble. His eyes were losing focus.   
"Know why I'm doing this boy?"   
"Nuriko… killed…"   
"Right. And I won't do it just to you. Your family, your friends, all the Suzaku… you'll get there first, but you won't be alone long. And Nakago. He killed me too, even after I'd done his bidding, because he had no use for an animal like me. Him, and all the Seiryu… you can continue your little war… in hell!" The claws came down again.   
  


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Nuriko had watched in horror as Ashitare landed next to Reijirou, beginning to choke him. He had yelled the assailant's identity as Reijirou screamed. Time stopped as Reijirou's body seemed to slow. Nuriko knew he was losing too much blood. It had happened to him, too. With the same Seiryu seishi. But he had managed to kill him before he had died. Reijirou was too weak. Not enough of his strength had been passed down. Reijirou would die there, either from loss of blood or from having his neck snapped. Without stopping him. Without living his life… And there was nothing Nuriko could do about it. If he fought off Ashitare, he would be seen. There was no way he wouldn't. "Suzaku, help me!" he shouted at the sky. Lightning flashed, thunder cracked, and the rain began to fall.   
And suddenly he knew what he had to do. He'd apologize later, after Reijirou was safe. Not only Reijirou's life, but the lives of every reincarnated seishi, Suzaku or Seiryu, as well as their friends and families, hung on this moment. He dived.   
  


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_Nani…?_ Reijirou was suddenly getting stronger. He felt it. Warm inside. Almost… complete.   
_~ I don't care what you do, just get him off us and get us out of here! ~_ came a familiar voice inside his head. Almost his own. No, it _was_ his own.   
_Nuriko?_ He could barely hear Ashitare. He could tell it was something about why all this was happening, but he couldn't make it out.   
_~ JUST DO IT! ~_   
Reijirou was suddenly much, much stronger. Stronger than he'd ever been. He heard something clink against his wristwatch. Nuriko's bracelets. He let go of Ashitare's arm on his throat and shoved his wrist in front of the animal-man's eyes. The bracelets blazed with a brilliant red light as they transformed into the arm guards, blinding Ashitare and making him miss, jamming his claw-fingers literally into the cement. The light had no effect on Reijirou. He could still see perfectly clearly.   
_~ I'm giving you my ki… now, get out of here! ~_ A hard mental prod seemed to accompany that order.   
Reijirou thought that was a very excellent idea. He grabbed the arm on his throat and twisted it away while Ashitare was distracted with trying to get himself out of the sidewalk. He then grabbed the wild mane of hair in his right hand, the one with the wounded arm, and slammed the left arm guard into the animal-man's forehead. Ashitare flew back, his head clanging against an iron streetlight. Reijirou blessed modern building materials, rolled to his feet, and ran, leaving an unconscious Ashitare behind him.   
_~ Good job, Reijirou. ~ _Reijirou thought he felt what was almost certainly a pat on the back.   
_Why didn't you jump in sooner? I could've been killed!_   
_~ Would have been, ~_ Nuriko corrected. _~ You wouldn't have survived. And I didn't know if I could do it. It's like I'm possessing myself! But better late than never. ~_   
_Yeah. Arigato._   
_~ I'm still giving you my ki, but at this rate soon I'm going to run out. Go somewhere you can see a doctor, and fast. ~_   
_A hospital…_ Reijirou tried to think of where the nearest one was. He was already a good five streets away from the animal-man, who still lay unconscious against the street light. He remembered the one he'd taken Gesshin to the first time they'd met, when Gesshin was being beaten up by those punks. He turned left at the next light and began the ten-block journey to the hospital. His blood ran from the gashes, staining his clothes a sickly reddish-brown, falling behind him only to be washed away down the sewers by the rain. Reijirou was grateful for the rain and its cleansing effect. When Ashitare woke up he wouldn't be able to track him with scent.   
_~ TIME'S UP!!! ~_ Nuriko screamed in his head when they were just three blocks away from the hospital. Reijirou felt part of himself being ripped away, and he screamed again. The arm guards disappeared. His energy vanished, forcing him to slow to a walk. The rain beat down harder, washing away more of his life-giving blood.   
"Reijirou!" He could see Nuriko again. The arm guards had reverted back to bracelets on Nuriko's wrists. "Reijirou, keep going! You told me yourself, you're almost there!" Nuriko was more worried than Reijirou had ever pictured him to be.   
"I'll get… there… Don't… worry…"   
"HURRY!"   
Reijirou's vision began to blur. The rain-soaked street swam in front of his eyes. He thought it was strange that no one was out. He guessed the rain was keeping them home.   
"Almost there! Just one more street! See, even I can tell what that place is!" Nuriko's voice seemed to come from a long way off.   
Funny… A couple days ago he didn't know about any of this, yet one person from the book just attacked him, and another saved his life… Nuriko. Yeah… He really was cool, cross-dressing and all… Gesshin would like him… Tasuki did…… Risako liked him…... He seemed to like Risako…… He might be joking…… Yeah……… So dark………   



	9. Chapter 9

  
DISCLAIMER: OK, I'm too busy in the theatre to worry about the fact that I don't OWN this thing ~helplessly picks at the ugly yellow paint that's embedded in what nails she still has~   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know the last one was severely behind schedule, but I promise it wasn't my fault! Well, not much. We were out of town, and then I couldn't seem to find a good time to proof it. But this one's here! Yay!   
You know, there was a good point brought up. Goddess of Healer pointed out that for most of the FY characters to ever have a love life they'd NEED to be paired with original characters. Good point, but still... I just have thing thing against the idea. yes, this has a point. There're a couple of lines in this chapter that could be slightly suggestive in that manner, but give the situation the benefit of the doubt.   
Waku-chan, you still rule ^_^   
Bashou, KEEP THAT DICTIONARY AWAY FROM ME! I'm already getting whacked with the lead pipe! And I didn't, did I?   
Goddess of Healer, good point. I give you thumbs up ^_^ And yes, I bet that IS why! No one else!   
Someone bring me a straightjacket for Gohanzgirl, NOW! And an oxygen tank! Calm down! Calm down!   
Stormlight, it's good to see you back! I hope the move went well and you weren't ripped off by anyone again ^_^ I'll be willing to whack 'em for you! And yes, another cliffie ^_^ Remember, I'm addicted to them.   
  


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"Reijirou?"   
He heard the voice faintly. He didn't think he wanted to hear it. He was in a nice, calm place. There was an open field under the starry night sky. The stars were clearer than he remembered. A laugh drew his attention, and he looked down to see a boy and girl, almost identical – no, but for the haircuts they _were_ identical – run by, chasing the fireflies that buzzed lazily around the field like sleepy lights. He smiled at them. They waved happily, then chased each other into the trees on the other side of the field.   
"Reijirou, please, wake up. Please…"   
It was a different voice this time. His mind told him he still didn't want to hear it. Near the edge of the field was a large, flat rock. He walked over to it, climbed up, and lay down. It was just the right size for him. The incline was perfect for stargazing. He pillowed his head on his arms and started to pick out familiar constellations, old friends. One set of constellations in the southern sky seemed to stand out especially well. He searched his brain, trying to remember their names. Only one would come to him, the one that seemed to be brighter than the rest – Nuriko. Nuriko…   
"Nuriko?" He seemed to be levitating, rising up to that shining constellation which was growing brighter and brighter every moment. He rose to the light, and he could still see. He looked down again, saw the two children waving to him. He waved back. He'd see them later, he knew.   
The light flashed its brightest, then the world grew suddenly dark again. With an effort so immense it tired him beyond belief, he opened his eyes, but saw only darkness. "Nuriko?"   
"REIJIROU!" A shadowy form threw itself on him and its arms around him, making him grit his teeth with pain in a tremendous effort not to scream. "Reijirou! You're awake!" The figure was shaking with sobbing. He blinked his eyes a few times to clear them, and most of the dimness left. He could see her clearly now. "Ri… sako?" he whispered.   
"Hai, hai, hai! You're here! I thought you'd died!" She was still crying. Reijirou tried to bring his arms up, but let out a small cry of pain as the right one pulled agonizingly against the wound. Risako immediately stood up, glaring at him through tear-filled eyes. "Don't move! The doctors say you need rest, and immobility. We didn't get you in here just to have you die on us right when you woke up!"   
"Baka," he whispered. Talking louder than that was too much of a task for him in his current state. He reached up with his uninjured left arm and pulled her down again, hugging her tightly. "Risako no baka. I'm too stubborn to die."   
"Reijirou."   
He looked up for that voice, seeing for the first time the pristine cleanliness of a hospital room. Nuriko's ghostly form leaned against one pale-blue wall, taking it all in, an unreadable expression on his face.   
"Nuriko….. arigato, you saved my life." Reijirou smiled at the seishi.   
"I nearly didn't," Nuriko said bluntly. "You were worse off than even I could tell. You fainted just one street down from the hospital." He slowly grinned. "See? I know what that means now."   
Reijirou laughed weakly. "You're improving."   
"Thanks." Nuriko grew serious again. "You were losing too much blood, so I did the only thing I could and tried to bandage you." He looked sheepish. "Gomen, your shirt's in shreds, and your jacket isn't much better."   
Reijirou glanced over Risako's head, still on his shoulder, to his injuries, slowly trying to flex his right arm. He winced as fire ran through him again. "Better them than me."   
"Right. I knew I had to get help, it would look kind of odd if you suddenly came in the door – floating six feet off the ground and unconscious. So I went to Risa-chan."   
"Hai." Risako straightened up again, wiping her eyes. "I was sound asleep, then I heard this _screaming_. It scared me." She tried to grin. "I literally fell out of bed." Reijirou laughed weakly again. "There was Nuriko, shining with this incredibly strong light and picking me up off the floor, yelling to get dressed fast 'cause you were in trouble." She swiped at her eyes again. "I got dressed and ran out of the apartment to my dad's car, and Nuriko directed me to you. He told me what happened. I brought you in here. They think I was with you when you were attacked by muggers with knives."   
"Nani?"   
"It was the only thing I could think of."   
"Iya, it's fine." He settled against the pillows, closing his eyes again. He was so tired...   
"You got a blood transfusion while they stitched you up. You're still getting it now." Reijirou opened his eyes again and for the first time noticed the pole next to his bed. A bag of red liquid was swinging from the top, feeding into a small plastic tube that ended in a needle in his right arm. "They said I got you here just in time." A quiver in her voice drew his eyes to her. Tears were spilling down her cheeks again. "I'm so glad you're all right."   
"Risako, I already said it, I'm too stubborn to die, ne?"   
"But still…"   
Nuriko yawned and pushed off of the wall, walking over to the bed. "Is the love story over yet?"   
Risako jumped back, bright red. Reijirou suspected he was as well. "If I could, I'd hit you now, you know."   
Nuriko grinned. "Hai, I know. I'd do the same thing, but you can't and I won't!" He smiled cheerfully. "Your family should be here soon. It actually hasn't been that long since the fight. Taka and Miaka will probably show up too. Gesshin might, I don't know if he knows about it."   
"What time is it?"   
"About eleven-thirty," answered Risako. "I got here about half an hour ago."   
"Risako…"   
"What?"   
"What in the hell were you doing asleep that early?"   
  


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"REIJIROU-KUN!" The door to his room burst open a few minutes later, spilling his family inside. His mother ran to the bed and swept him up into a hug, which, fortunately, excluded his bandaged areas. "I was so worried!!!"   
"I'm okay Mom, it's all right." Reijirou awkwardly patted his mother on the back with his good arm. "I'll be fine in a couple days."   
Chiaki and Hajime, meanwhile, had noticed Risako, who had retreated to a corner. Chiaki walked up to her, studying her with her head tilted. "I know you from somewhere, ne?"   
Risako swallowed nervously and nodded. "I went to your high school."   
"What are you doing in aniki's room?" Hajime demanded, almost glaring at her.   
"Calm down Hajime, she's a friend. She brought me here after it happened." Reijirou's voice was still very weak, but he was able to make himself be heard.   
"She did? Dear girl, thank you!" Reijirou's mother swooped over to Risako, hugging her even tighter than she had Reijirou.   
"You're welcome, Enomoto-san," Risako managed to gasp out.   
"Mom, where's Dad?" Reijirou asked.   
His little trick worked. His mother let go of Risako, who gratefully slumped against the wall to catch her breath, and went back to Reijirou. "He's looking for your doctor. He should be here soon."   
"Do they know when I can go home?"   
"You'll have to ask- ah, this has to be him now," she said as the door swung open. Two men entered: Reijirou's father, and behind him a man almost as tall as Ashitare, but with short dark hair, glasses, and a kind face. His white lab coat identified him easily as the doctor.   
Reijirou's father pulled his wife over to the man. "Dear, this is Seo Murai, Reijirou-kun's doctor."   
Nuriko groaned loudly from his corner of the room. "We're getting overrun with them! That makes-" he tallied on his fingers "-six tonight! Give me a break already!" he shouted at the ceiling, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation. Reijirou felt it too. He had to exercise every ounce of his self-control to not look at Nuriko, though he noticed Risako's eyes darting there and back. But she wasn't the center of attention. All his family members' eyes were trained on him and Dr. Seo by his bed.   
Dr. Seo flipped through the papers on his clipboard, holding a pen in his teeth. "Iie… iie… ah, here." He took the pen in his hand again and flipped the papers he didn't want to the back of the clipboard, then turned it around to the Enomotos, using the pen as a pointer. "Aside from the cuts, which have already been treated, and the loss of blood, which we're remedying now-" he gestured to the IV "-all he has are some scrapes and bruises. No major internal injuries or bleeding, no breaks, sprains, or fractures, no head trauma."   
_Cuts?! How can he think these are just CUTS?!_ Reijirou thought angrily as his family thanked the doctor profusely. He'd passed out from those so-called cuts! Damnit, he'd almost DIED! Those weren't just cuts! Even now he could feel the ice-hot pain as Ashitare's claws gashed through him.   
Dr. Seo's voice brought him back to the present. "Gomen, but I'm going to have to ask everyone except Daishi-san to step out of the room for a minute. The police have been waiting for a few minutes to take their statements." Dr. Seo proved to be a very effective shepherd, gently yet firmly steering the rest of the Enomoto family out of the room. His mother called back that she would come back tomorrow, and Hajime yelled something he couldn't quite make out before Dr. Seo let in two uniformed officers.   
"Well kids, how nice to see you again." The policewoman grinned.   
"Sargent Owake! Officer Fujimara!" Risako cried. "It's you!"   
"Hai, we seem to keep running into each other, ne?" It was Fujimara's turn to grin.   
"Remember, you only have five minutes, he needs his rest." Dr. Seo left the room and closed the door behind him.   
"Will five minutes be enough?" Reijirou asked softly.   
"Hai. We brought this." With a flourish Fujimara displayed a hand-held tape recorder. "With an extra-sensitive mic."   
"That's good." Reijirou sighed and leaned back against his pillows. "Where do you want me to start?"   
"How about at the beginning." Fujimara turned on the recorder while Owake pulled up the eating tray. The officer placed the recorder on the tray, motioning for Reijirou to start talking.   
"Hai… My friend Gesshin had knocked himself out at my home, and I said I'd take him back to his place. I was planning on driving, but apparently Chiaki – that's my aneki, you just saw her – had taken our car, so we walked. We made it to his place fine, nothing happened."   
"Where does Gesshin live?"   
"In the Booze District," he said flatly. Everyone knew the not-nice nickname. "It's all he can afford. I left him at his building, then turned to go back." Reijirou mentally crossed his fingers and hoped his facsimile fit Risako's. "On the way back I ran into Risako. We walked together since we were going the same way. A couple minutes later a bunch of toughs jumped out of the alleyway. They wanted money. Mine was at home. They pulled knives. I tried to fight them off, but there were too many to either fight or run away from. Then they did this. Risako helped me here. She says I passed out not far from the hospital. I guess I lost too much blood. When I woke up, I was here."   
"Arigato, Enomoto-san. Daishi-san, your turn." Owake nodded at Risako.   
"I was going home from the university. It's shorter to go through that place, although I don't do it often cause of the troublemakers there. But tonight I was late, and it saved time. I ran into Reijirou there, and we walked together. Everything happened like he said – the alley, the mugging. I didn't have any money either, but Reijirou tried to fight them off, so it was him they hurt." She looked down, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Gomen nasai, I wasn't much help Reijirou."   
"You got me here, I might be dead if you hadn't."   
"Hai." She looked up again. "A car passing by scared them off. By that time they'd done all that to Reijirou. He wasn't doing good. I tried to bandage the wounds. I helped him up and we came down here. He fainted about a block away. After that I dragged him here and into the front lobby. They put him in surgery almost immediately. And he's still alive."   
Fujimara rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm… do either of you think you could identify any of those attackers?"   
Reijirou and Risako glanced at each other. "We can try," Risako said. Reijirou nodded his agreement.   
"All right, we'll bring the books down here tomorrow, say, eleven-ish?" Both of them nodded. "All right, that's all set, thanks. You kids helped us a lot yesterday, we'll do our best to find these guys, and fast." Owake picked up the tape recorder and turned it off. "We'll be in touch." They tipped their hats and exited through the door, standing aside to let Dr. Seo enter again before closing it behind them.   
"All right kids, enough playing around." Dr. Seo was suddenly very serious. He took off his glasses and studied them with intense eyes. Normally Reijirou would've been upset over being studied like a specimen, but he was tired, and he'd been scrutinized enough in the past two days to get him used to it. Besides, he was amused by the equally serious scrutiny Nuriko was giving Dr. Seo from his corner, without the doctor knowing.   
"What, doctor?" Risako asked.   
Dr. Seo looked straight at her for a moment. "I couldn't be a doctor here and not know what a knife wound looks like. And those-" he gently touched Reijirou's bandages. Amazingly the wounds suddenly seemed a lot… cooler. _But that would fit, if it's true_, he reminded himself as the doctor kept speaking "-are not knife wounds. They're too rough. You only get that type of gouging from specially barbed knives. And they're parallel to each other, five in a set. Five wounds. Five claws of a wild animal." His impermeable gaze rested on both of them. Reijirou suddenly got very nervous. He didn't want to think of what would happen if the doctor figured it out.   
"Wild animal, doctor?" he said quietly. For once the immense fatigue was helping. It made him sound more convincing. "There's no wild animals this big in the city." Nuriko winked at him. He was doing fine.   
Dr. Seo looked at the two of them for a moment, then left the room quietly.   
"PHEW! I thought he'd never leave!" Nuriko exclaimed loudly, wiping his forehead.   
"He seems nice. But observant." Risako muttered that last part rather darkly. "What will we do if he figures it out?"   
"By that time he'll probably be awake," Reijirou mumbled, settling into his pillows.   
"Awake?" Risako asked in confusion.   
Nuriko and Reijirou looked at each other. "Mitsukake," they said at the same time.   
"That sounded like some weird echo effect. Great," Risako groaned. "Another summoning, Miaka'll probably pass out again."   
"Oh, it gets better. Amiboshi and Suboshi were waiting for me when I got home."   
"NANI?!"   
"The Seiryu twins are his little brother's friends in… What was that again?" the seishi asked, no less confused than Risako but for very different reasons.   
"Band," Reijirou supplied.   
"Grrraaaahh, this is even worse." Risako sat down in a chair and looked at her hands, thinking.   
"Reijirou," Nuriko said softly.   
"Mm?"   
"I think I'm going to have to break my promise to you."   
"Nani?" Reijirou sat up slightly, looking at Nuriko, but was immediately pushed back down again by Risako, who was also watching the seishi.   
Nuriko looked gravely at both of them. "Reijirou, this might be asking too much, but do you remember what Ashitare said when he was trying to kill you? About why he was doing this?"   
"All I could think of was whether I was gonna live or die." He had had a brush with death. Somehow he knew he would never be the same. "I got that he wants me because I'm you and you killed him."   
"Listen carefully you two, this is what he said." Nuriko floated over to look out the rain-soaked window at the ground several stories below. "I'll never forget it. This was right after he asked you why you thought he was doing that. 'And I won't do it just to you. Your family, your friends, all the Suzaku… you'll get there first, but you won't be alone long. And Nakago. He killed me too, even after I'd done his bidding, because he had no use for an animal like me. Him, and all the Seiryu… you can continue your little war… in hell!'"   
Risako and Reijirou were speechless. Nuriko nodded slowly, not looking at them but knowing full well what they were thinking. "Hai. I think he'll go after everyone. Suzaku or Seiryu. He'll kill until all traces of the seishi have been wiped out. You and whoever Nakago is right now are his obvious targets, but through you he'll trace every seishi, every family member, and every friend he can, until all that's left is a blood bath." Nuriko tried to breathe on the window and fog it, sadly watching the glass stay clear. "He needs to be stopped. And the easiest way to stop one seishi is with another – or several." He turned and looked at Reijirou and Risako, completely, totally serious. "As soon as we can let Miaka and Taka know, we have to start planning for a mass awakening. We need to find as many reincarnates as we can, before they're murdered for things they've never even heard of without a chance to fight back."   
"Which means you'll have to start appearing to people."   
Nuriko nodded. "Hai. I must. But I won't until they've read the book, or at least have it explained to them." He smiled humorlessly. "Less confusion that way."   
Risako stood up. "I'd better get home… I'll see you two tomorrow. Oyasumi Nuriko, Reijirou."   
"Oyasumi, Risako." They replied in chorus.   
She went over to the window and waited while Nuriko's bracelets changed, then hugged him. She stopped by the bed, a little hesitant, then bent down and quickly kissed a surprised Reijirou on the cheek. Then she fled out the door.   
Reijirou and Nuriko both watched the door for a minute. "Well."   
"Nani, Nuriko?"   
Nuriko looked at him sideways. "You've stopped using san and kun with each other."   
"If someone helps save your life, I think they're entitled."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Take note that in my hands no character is safe. Not even my main character. So don't count too much on anyone's safety, it's gonna get really weird soon. Now I'm going to go walk and nurse this toe that got a wall dropped on it in rehearsal today ~rubs the poor abused toe~ Ja mata! 


	10. Chapter 10

  
DISCLAIMER: ~sings along to "Rent" (from, incidentally, the musical Rent) and doesn't worrya bout the fact that she in no way owns either Rent or FY~   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Bashou killed me with a dictionary ^_^   
I am in the middle of getting the entire soundtrack of Rent.   
I have a take-home quiz I should be doing.   
There was an accident outside my neighborhood today.   
(To be serious for JUST A SECOND I wanna GLOMP everyone! ~GLOMP!~ Lord, the reaction to this story lately has been so overwhelming! I was so sure people wouldn't like this story because it's very stereotypical, but maybe I was wrong ^^ Anyway, it'll get even weirder soon, and probably more confusing. But I'm gonna put in handy guides to stuff, like who everyone is. If you have any questions, just ask!)   
And no one is obliged to review (although I won't say no if you want to! ^_^)   
  


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"Reijirou-san. Reijirou-san, wake up, you have visitors."   
Reijirou slowly awakened to the morning sun shining in his eyes and a smiling nurse taking his temperature. "Hhfhoo fif fit?"   
"One moment, then you can talk." The thermometer beeped and the nurse took it out of his mouth, glancing at the measurement. "Well, you don't have a fever, that's good. You didn't contract any disease when you got cut then. Now, I'll bring them in to you." The nurse smiled her way out of the room, leaving Reijirou blinking at the ceiling. He glanced at the clock. 8:30. He smiled ironically. The same time he woke up yesterday, although under very different circumstances.   
"Reijirou-san!" A blur rushed into the room and climbed up onto the foot of his bed. "Reijirou-san, Reijirou-san, Mama said you got hurt!"   
Reijirou smiled. "Hai, I did Naora-chan, but I feel better."   
Naora crawled on her hands and knees further up the bed, inspecting him with wide, curious eyes. "You don't look hurt. You look tired!"   
"Naora! Don't go running off like that without us!" Miaka and Taka walked into the room, giving their daughter what could only be described as "parent looks". "Reijirou needs his rest."   
"It's all right, I was awake anyway. Thank you for coming."   
"Reijirou-san, what happened to you?" Naora asked, now sitting cross-legged by his uninjured arm.   
He reached up and patted her head. "Some bad men did a bad thing. But they won't anymore." There was a wisp of movement in the corner of his eye. He quickly glanced over and saw Nuriko come drifting in through the door and over to Miaka. He whispered in her ear, and her mouth dropped open. Reijirou took that as a signal. "Naora-chan, would you mind letting me and your mother talk for a minute?"   
"Hai!" She scrambled off the bed and ran to grab her father's hand. "Papa, let's go down to the store we saw on the way in! We can get Reijirou-san a teddy bear!"   
Taka laughed and picked up his daughter. Reijirou could hear Nuriko laughing too. "All right Naora-chan, we can go look. We'll be back in a few minutes." Taka nodded at Miaka and Reijirou, then headed out the door with Naora, who was babbling excitedly away.   
"Ashitare." There's was no question in Miaka's tone.   
"Yeah."   
"He almost killed you."   
"Nuriko saved me." Reijirou looked over at Nuriko.   
Miaka did also, and smiled sadly. "Arigato Nuriko, somehow you always seem to be saving one of us." She went over and hugged the seishi, almost resting against him for a moment as if to regain her strength.   
"Just doing my job," Nuriko said softly, stroking her hair. "You were so stupid you needed a lot of looking after. And now he does, too. I'm not going to just sit by and let myself die again, now am I?"   
"No, you wouldn't." Miaka pulled back, wiping away a tear and smiling. "But still, thank you."   
"Miaka, we know why this is happening now." Reijirou's voice was almost back to normal, but he was incredibly hoarse. Nuriko and Miaka both glanced at him. "Ashitare wants us dead."   
Miaka gasped. "It can't be…"   
Reijirou and Nuriko looked at each other with equally grim expressions, and nodded in sync. "Do you want to hear what he said Miaka?" Nuriko asked gently.   
"Miaka? Daijobu?" Miaka had slowly collapsed into one of the chairs. "Miaka?"   
"Us… all of us?" She asked shakily.   
Nuriko took that as a yes, kneeling in front of her and placing a hand on ehr shoulder, not letting her look away. "He said to Reijirou: 'And I won't do it just to you. Your family, your friends, all the Suzaku… you'll get there first, but you won't be alone long. And Nakago. He killed me too, even after I'd done his bidding, because he had no use for an animal like me. Him, and all the Seiryu… you can continue your little war… in hell!' He had just asked Reijirou if he knew why he was being murdered like that." The word "murdered" sent chills up Reijirou's spine. "He said everyone. And I think he meant it."   
"Our friends… our families… not just us, even though most of us don't even know about it, but _everyone_ who's close to us?" Miaka whispered. Her hands clenched into shaking fists in her lap. "Why? Why this...?"   
"Miaka…" Reijirou said quietly, "it won't happen. I'll make sure it won't happen. I won't let anything happen to you or Taka or Naora-chan. You can count on it."   
"Reijirou…"   
"I won't either Miaka. You fought hard to have this life. No one will take it away while I can help it."   
"Nuriko…" She smiled. "Arigato. You two really are the same."   
"We know," they chorused. Nuriko grinned at Reijirou. "We're getting good at that."   
"Hai." Reijirou grinned back. "Maybe we can start playing practical jokes that way."   
"Ooh, got any ideas?"   
"Possibly."   
"Oh, knock it off you two." Miaka had to grin also. "Or I'll feed Naora-chan a bag of sugar and have you both baby-sit her for a few hours."   
They both paled dramatically. "NO!"   
Miaka just smiled sweetly.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"I see. I'll call Yui-chan as soon as I get home and let her know what's going on. Hopefully she'll be free for the next couple of days so we can finish this quickly." Reijirou and Nuriko had just explained everything they'd worked out the night before, leaving out one _tiny_ item: Reijirou refused to tell Miaka about Gesshin/Tasuki. He still wasn't sure what she'd do. He knew it would have to come out sooner or later, but the more time she had to cool off, the better. Nuriko had seemed to understand that and had noticeably left Tasuki off when they'd related the list of seishi they'd found the day before.   
"Yeah, that would be good. But why is Yui so busy lately?"   
Miaka smiled proudly. "She's studying for her degree in business law."   
Reijirou whistled. Nuriko looked puzzled. "What's that?"   
"Something _very_ complicated," Reijirou explained.   
"Oh." Nuriko apparently decided not to inquire further, something Reijirou thought very wise. "Well, while you try to get Yui, Miaka, we'll try and find the rest."   
"Nuriko, we should probably try to find Nakago first."   
Nuriko shuddered. "That guy gives me the creeps. I wish we could leave him alone."   
"Whatever he did in the past, even killing us, is _in the past_. Whoever he is now is gonna be gone after. He deserves a fair warning."   
"I know, I know, but it doesn't mean I have to _like_ it." Nuriko grumbled. "Ashitare may have killed us, but he was under Nakago's orders. But I'll do it. It _is_ fair."   
"Good, 'cause I think I know who he is…"   
"WHAT?!" Nuriko leapt over and grabbed the collar of Reijirou's hospital gown, yanking him up. "Why didn't you TELL me this already?!"   
"Can't… breathe…!"   
Nuriko looked down at Reijirou's face, which was slowly turning the color of his hair, and yelped. "Gomen!" He let him go and he fell back against the pillows. "Gomen nasai!"   
Reijirou rubbed his throat with his left hand, twisting his head back and forth to get it working right again. "You better be. And I just remembered it a minute ago, so I _couldn't_ have told you before then."   
"I guess not then."   
"You know how strange it is to see Nuriko doing that to himself?" Miaka was sitting in her chair, giggling. "I've seen him nearly choke Tasuki and Tamahome and random people in the street, but not himself."   
"I would've gladly avoided the experience if I could have."   
"Hey, I said sorry."   
"I can still tease you."   
"All right you two, calm down. You said the doctor, Seo Murai, is Mitsukake?"   
"Yes, we both felt it." Reijirou said, while Nuriko nodded his agreement. "And when he touched my wounds, they felt cooler. It would fit if he really is Mitsukake."   
"And those friends of your brother, they're Suboshi and Amiboshi."   
"Right."   
"Katai even plays the flute," Nuriko commented ironically.   
"I wonder how many more there are…" Miaka folded her arms, a considering expression on her face.   
"At the most, thirteen, at the least, six. Us, Tamahome, Suboshi, Amiboshi, Mitsukake, Nakago." Nuriko counted off on his fingers. "And of course you and Yui."   
Miaka frowned at the floor. "Even if there's only that many from the book, there's all the family members, close friends, possibly even co-workers… maybe about a hundred people."   
"But we're not going to let him, Miaka." Reijirou reminded her gently. "We already said we wouldn't. I'm not gonna let a couple of wounds stop me." He smiled.   
She smiled back. "Arigato."   
The room was quiet for a few seconds, everyone lost in thought. Nuriko was looking out the window again. He seemed to like doing that. Suddenly a question popped into Reijirou's head, and he spoke without thinking. "Miaka, how did you know this was coming and that Risako and I would be involved in it?"   
Miaka gave him a sideways glance. "It's sort of a miko power. Not very well defined though. I started having these strange dreams one night. I couldn't remember what happened in them, but I always woke up with this feeling of fear and horror and anticipation. The only things that stuck with me were two faces: a Nuriko who was not Nuriko, and a girl with long, dark red hair. When I saw Risako a couple of days ago I knew it was her, and after I figured out that you _weren't_ Nuriko-" she smiled ironically "-I guessed you were the other. After all, how many Nurikos can there be at one time?"   
"Two at least, and I bet we could get more!" Nuriko called. Everyone laughed.   
Suddenly a sharp pain lanced through Reijirou's chest, and he cried out. Nuriko yelled at the same time he did, falling to his knees and doubling over his torso, shaking visibly. Reijirou clamped his arms around himself and shivered violently, gritting his teeth against another yell.   
"What?! What's going on?!" Miaka jumped out of her chair, knocking it over, looking in horror back and forth between them.   
"I… I don't know…" Reijirou managed to get out.   
The pain began to fade after a few seconds. Nuriko slowly began to unbend, Reijirou relaxed his death grip on himself. He was sweating, and Nuriko would have been as well if he were able. The pain suddenly disappeared entirely. Reijirou took a shuddering breath. "What was that…"   
"I think…" Nuriko said as he slowly stood up, "something happened to Risako…"   
"Risako?!"   
"That's only a guess. I'm going to go find out. Now." Nuriko vanished.   
Reijirou dropped back into his pillows, breathing deeply. "If it _is_ Risako, how did I feel that…?"   
Miaka came up beside him and pulled his blanket up, tucking it around him. "I don't know. I just hope she's all right."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
_She knew she was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming, yet it all seemed so real, and she could not wake up. She couldn't tell where she was, but she knew there were a lot of people with her. And other things, things that were like people, but not quite. She had the feeling she knew two of them very well.   
She could see the great shape in front of her, separating her and several others from the people and not-quite people. She knew she was scared. Yes, she was very scared. And very determined. And very pissed off. And directly in front of the shape stood the person she knew the best, yelling something as loud as possible, but she still couldn't make it out. The great shape had a dramatically smaller one with it. It wanted to harm the small one. She knew she had to stop it.   
The pain. The pain was quite real. She could feel the ice-hot fire of the wounds. She thought she screamed. Or maybe it was that person. Another shadow flew past, towards the big shape. There. The pain was lessening. Or she was losing feeling. She thought she saw another shape running towards her…_   
Risako opened her eyes, looking wildly around her room. It was the same as it had been the night before, when Nuriko appeared out of nowhere and woke her to help Reijirou. There was nothing there she didn't know about.   
"A dream…" Risako sighed and wiped her hand across her forehead. She'd been sweating heavily. Well, she wanted a shower anyway. She turned over in her bed, clutching the comforter to her chin. What had that dream been…?   
"Risako!" POP. Nuriko appeared out of thin air in front of her. And ducked as one of her pillows went flying over his head. "Ne, ne, it's me!"   
"Nuriko! Sorry!" She put down the other pillow sheepishly. "What are you doing here?"   
"I came to see if you were all right, baka. Obviously you are if you try to hit me with stuff."   
"All right?" Risako blinked. "What do you mean all right?"   
"At the hospital just a few moments ago both me and Reijirou felt this excruciating pain. I thought something had happened to you, so I came here." Nuriko politely turned around. "And I'd get some new sleepwear if I were you, those are getting pretty ratty."   
"Gah!" She chucked the other pillow at him, which he easily dodged. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I had this strange dream that's all."   
"Strange dream? What about?" he asked, his back still turned.   
She took the opportunity to get out of bed and pull on her robe. "I'm not exactly sure. I don't know where, when, how, or who, but there were people I knew, and one I was damn mad at. And that one was... I'm not sure what they were doing, but I had to stop it… then the pain came. I don't know how, but I felt this massive pain. Then it seemed to lessen. The last thing I remember was one person going over me and one running to me. Then I woke up. Then _you_ popped in."   
"And then you tried to hit me."   
"_Sorry_, all right?! Out. Back to the hospital, I have to change. I'll be down there to look at pictures in a couple of hours."   
Nuriko grinned. "I'll leave you to yourself then." He popped out.   
"Risa-chan!" her mother called to her. "Come here and help me!"   
Risako groaned. Somehow she could tell this was going to be a long day…   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Reijirou-san, we're back! Look what we got you!" An excited Naora burst in the room, running fast and trying not to trip over the extremely large light neon purple teddy bear she was carrying. The thing was almost as big as the girl.   
Reijirou smiled. "Arigato Naora-chan, that's very kind of you." He hid laughter as she tried to climb onto the bed while holding the bear, not having much success. She really was so incredibly cute.   
"One moment Naora-chan." Taka came in, grinning widely. He picked up his daughter and lifted her onto the bed. "How do you like your present, Reijirou? She picked it out all by herself."   
"You did?" Naora nodded. He smiled again. "Then that makes it even better." She beamed happily up at him, snuggling in next to him on the creaky hospital bed.   
He heard a soft popping sound as Nuriko appeared back in the room. Reijirou willed himself not to look that way.   
"And you have something else, Reijirou." Taka held up a black bag, still grinning.   
"More presents? I'm touched."   
"Don't be." Taka opened the bag and began taking out books, grinning even wider. Miaka was grinning too. "It's the work you'll probably miss for your classes."   
Reijirou groaned loudly. "I can't even _write_ and I'm expected to do homework? Forget it."   
"Now now Enomoto, don't be a bad influence on Naora-chan here."   
Naora was looking back and forth between them like a spectator at a tennis match, one finger in her mouth. "What's a bad influence Papa?"   
"I'll tell you later." Taka gently removed the finger from her mouth and glanced at his watch. "Sorry Reijirou, I have to be at the university soon."   
Miaka stood up and pushed the chair back into its place by the wall. "I have to be going too, gomen. Come on sweetie." She came over and picked up her daughter, being careful not to jostle Reijirou too much. "We'll try to come back soon, Reijirou."   
"Hey, how did you all get here now? I thought they had restricted visiting hours."   
Taka grinned. "We told the truth. I said I was bringing you your school work."   
Reijirou grumbled as the Sukunami family left his room.   
Nuriko drifted over to the bed, looking amused. "That is one big, bright bear."   
"Definitely."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"No… Nothing…" Reijirou had fallen back asleep for a couple of hours, only to be woken by Owake and Fujimara, who'd brought their books of photos. Risako was late. He'd spent the past fifteen minutes looking through them seemingly alone, although Nuriko was watching over his shoulder. It was Nuriko's job to remember Ashitare's new name if he was in there, although they wouldn't tell the police. So far they'd had no luck.   
"It's okay, just take your time. Getting the right one is important."   
Reijirou pushed that book away and grabbed another one, flipping it open with his left hand to a random page. He scanned the photos.   
"Nothing," Nuriko said over his shoulder. "No one even close."   
The door flew open. "Sorry, Mom needed my help and wouldn't let me leave," Risako explained, rushing into the room. Fujimara graciously stood up, offering her his chair, which she pulled next to Reijirou's bed and sat in. "Thank you. Any luck so far?"   
"No. I'm getting depressed."   
"Don't worry, if they're not in these, we've got a few more at the station," Owake said.   
"That's good." Reijirou turned the page. Then he turned the page again. And again. And again. Then he went back to the pages he'd skipped and flipped through those. Nothing. Ashitare was not in there.   
"None of them look familiar," Risako said next to him. He had to admit she was playing her part well.   
"There's still another book." Fujimara handed her the last and thickest book they'd brought. Risako put it on Reijirou's tray and opened the cover. Reijirou went through this one more slowly, giving each face a more careful glance. There was always the chance he didn't look exactly the same.   
"Reijirou. Look. Third from the right," Nuriko said from behind him after a few pages. Reijirou casually let his gaze wander to that picture.   
It was Ashitare all right. The hair was a bit shorter, and he had a bruise on his face, but it was him for certain.   
"Koiso… Akihiko…" Nuriko read out loud. "Koiso Akihiko… hmm…"   
Reijirou kept turning pages, although now he only pretended to look. Finally he closed the book and sighed. "Gomen nasai, I don't recognize anyone."   
"I don't either," Risako said, sounding just as apologetic.   
"That's all right kids, we can bring the rest of the pictures here some other time. Probably not for the next couple of days though, I think your doctor is getting annoyed with us, Enomoto-san." Fujiwara collected the books, putting them in a cardboard file box.   
Reijirou shrugged with his uninjured arm. "He means well. And the faster I'm better the sooner I get out of here."   
Owake grinned. "True. Then we can recruit you to the force."   
"Me? A policeman? No way."   
"Ahh, just think about it, you wouldn't be too bad."   
"_Too_ bad. That's still bad." He grinned. "That's not for me."   
"Oh, I don't know Reijirou, I could picture you in a uniform," Risako got into it as well, grinning.   
"Oh no, not you too," he groaned. He could hear Nuriko muffling laughter behind him.   
"Well, we'll set up an appointment with your doctor. We'll see you soon." The two officers waved as they left.   
"You _would_ be a good policeman, Reijirou."   
"You'd be better." He gave her a look. "Are you all right?"   
She nodded. "Hai, I'm fine, I already told Nuriko that."   
"Right after she threw her pillow at me." Nuriko piped up   
"You ducked!"   
"You still threw it!"   
"Wouldn't it have gone right through you, Nuriko?" Reijirou asked.   
Nuriko blinked. "You know, I don't know." Risako giggled.   
Reijirou turned back to Risako. "Are you sure you're okay? What I felt was almost as bad as when Ashitare did this to me."   
"Baka. I'm _fine_. It was just a dream."   
"A dream?"   
"Yeah, why?"   
Reijirou didn't answer. Instead he reached over and picked up the bedside phone, dialed the outline, and hit 0. "Operator, I need the number for someone named Sukunami Taka. Yes. That's right. Sure." He waited a moment. "Miaka? This is Reijirou. Listen, how soon will you and Yui be ready for a mass summoning?"   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I guarantee NO ONE'S safety. Seriously. No one is safe in my hands. Just see Market for evidence to that pint --;;; It's not that I want to torture them (wellllllllll... only in certain circumstances, and only if it'll be funny), but the plot needs it... Anyway, just remember that and we should get along fine ^_^ 


	11. Chapter 11

  
DISCLAIMER: Shall I spell it out for you? N-O-T M-I-N-E.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yes, I am updating this one on WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY now ^_^ I'm going faster! Only a week between chapters! Be happy, as if anyone reads these notes! ^_^   
Did I mention it was going to get confusing really soon? ^^;;; Well, that was an understatement. According to my own weird mind, it starts getting _very_ confusing this chapter, but my mind's very scattered and jumbled, so I don't have much in the way of organization... OK, I'm just repeating myself now ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I'll get it right one of these days, I swear!   
And I've learned never to put that statement on my chapters again. Ya think I would know not to do that, but nooooooooo... ahh well, I know I'm kooky ^_^   
And I forgot to do this last time! (Sheesh, what is it with me and forgetting things lately?!) ~GLOMPS Stormlight~ My 50th reviewer! Wow, I was sure this story wouldn't get TEN reviews, and it's almost at 60! It's surpasses all my expectations! Thank you soooooooo much everyone, I love you all!   
(And Lib-chan, YES I love Rent! It's soooooooo wonderful! Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful! I love "Rent", "Light My Candle", "Out Tonight", "Another Day", both "La Vie Boheme"s, "Seasons of Love", "What You Own"... _everything!_ Wonderful stuff!)   
  


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Past noon there came a knock on the door. Reijirou, Nuriko, and Risako broke off their conversation. "Who's there?" Reijirou called. He knew it wasn't a nurse; they had a disturbing tendancy to walk right in without asking.   
"It's Kadiri, open the door already!" a female voice called back.   
Risako looked at Reijirou, puzzled. "Who?"   
"One of my co-workers. It's all right." Risako nodded and stood up, going to the door and opening it. A tall woman about Miaka's age entered, carrying a plastic shopping bag, and glanced around the room, her eyes settling on Reijirou. "So Chiaki was right. She dropped by this morning to tell us what happened."   
"And Shunji sent you over to check on me, right?"   
Kadiri grinned. "Of course. He wants to know when you can come back to work. Better get well soon or you might not have a job."   
Risako cleared her throat. Reijirou hit himself in the forehead with his good hand. "Baka. Kadiri, this is Daishi Risako, a friend of mine. She helped me last night. Risako, this is Mizutani Kadiri, my sort-of manager at work."   
The two shook hands. "Thanks for helping Reijirou, we need him on the job." She grinned at the invalid. "He can make a sale better than anyone we've got."   
"Except you."   
"That's true."   
Nuriko was grumbling under his breath and not looking very happy. Reijirou was pretty sure he knew why, but he didn't want to bring it up - especially not with Kadiri in the room. "What's with the bag?"   
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Kadiri dropped the bag with an unceremonious clatter on the bedside table. "Shunji actually let go of some money this time. It's your get-well present from all of us."   
Reijirou whistled and took the bag. "The penny-pincher's letting up, huh? SUGOI!" He pulled out two CDs. "Thanks! I've been looking for these!"   
"We know, we know, now you can finally shut up about them." She quickly glanced at the clock. "I'd better be getting back, he hasn't let up enough to give me time off. I'm taking up my lunch break. See you when you get back." She waved and walked out.   
Nuriko pounded his fist against the wall. "Gaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Damnit!" he yelled.   
"Don't say it, I don't want to hear it," Reijirou warned.   
"Hear what?"   
"Don't ask, Risako."   
Nuriko huffed and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Not just Miaka, oh no, they want to make Yui pass out too! When's the end?! How many more are there?!"   
"And why the hell are we finding so many in just two days?"   
"Most of them were already there, remember." Nuriko grumbled under his breath. "At least she seems happier. And nicer."   
"Not being sold to a brothel probably has a lot to do with it."   
Risako calmly stood up, calmly walked over to Nuriko, and even more calmly smacked him upside the head. "What's going on?"   
Nuriko rubbed his head, giving her a slightly wounded look. "That actually hurt." Reijirou smothered laughter.   
"They're arm guards, not bracelets now, so of course I didn't go through you. Now, what's going on?"   
"That was Soi," Reijirou answered.   
"SOI?!"   
"Yes, Soi. Makes me wonder, just how many of these people do I know just in regular life?"   
Nuriko stood up, still rubbing his head. "Probably a lot. We all had interlocking destinies, so it's not really a surprise to me we're mostly together in this world as well. At least we won't have to look far."   
"Yeah…" Risako sat in her chair again. "I'm beginning to feel like an outsider, I didn't go through any of it."   
"You might not have, but you know more than most of them now."   
"Yeah…"   
"Stop worrying Risako, we don't have the time for it. We have to figure out some way to get Reijirou healed and out of here in a hurry."   
"Yeah, I'd kind of like to leave this place." Reijirou made a face. "Miaka was right, the food is terrible."   
"Want me to go down to the cafeteria Reijirou?"   
Reijirou shook his head. "That's all right, I'll suffer." He glanced over at the clock, absently checking the time. "Don't forget, Taka's class starts in half an hour."   
Risako yelped. "Baka! I almost forgot! Damn, and I have to walk today. I'll see you guys later!" She jumped up and ran out the door, barely more than a colorful blur.   
The room was silent for a few minutes.   
"Reijirou…"   
He jumped a little. "What, Nuriko?"   
"We have to tell Miaka about Gesshin."   
"WHAT?! Do you have any idea what she'll DO to him?!"   
"Of course, she'll forgive him after she's heard the reason. But I'm being selfish here." Nuriko grinned. "I need a distraction. I wanna hit Tasuki again."   
There was a long, slightly uncomfortable pause. "Okay... Whatever you say." Reijirou picked up the phone again, punching in Miaka's number after checking the little pad next to the phone he'd written it on. "It's Reijirou. Listen, there's something you should hear."   
"What?" Miaka sounded slightly distracted.   
"Are you sitting down?"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"WHAT?! That was Tasuki?!" Miaka yelled. "And you didn't tell me this sooner?!"   
Reijirou was holding the phone a long way away from his ear. And he could still plainly hear Miaka. "Can I remind you that that's my eardrum?"   
"Oh, sorry." She lowered her voice back to a normal level and sat in the computer chair again, putting her head in her free hand. "Why am I not surprised? And why didn't I see it before?"   
"You were a bit too busy being worried about your stuff. Wait. What, Nuriko?" Nuriko was staring interestedly at the receiver. A bit too interestedly.   
"I wanna try that thing."   
"No way."   
"Why not? I won't hurt it, I promise."   
Reijirou reluctantly handed over the receiver. "Just don't yell. Talk like you normally do. Uh, and it goes the other way."   
Nuriko grinned and turned the phone over so he was speaking into the mouthpiece, not the earpiece. "Miaka? Can you hear me?"   
"Nuriko? Is that you?"   
"Yes! Amazing! The things in this world are fascinating!"   
"This reminds me of when Tama first came here. Nuriko, I need to ask you and Reijirou to get Tasuki over there as soon as possible. I can probably come by this afternoon. Will that be enough time?"   
"Let me ask Reijirou." He related Miaka's question, and Reijirou nodded. "Yes, that should be fine Miaka, we'll get him here somehow."   
"Ne…" Reijirou said quickly. A thought was forming slowly in his mind. "Nuriko, let me have the phone." Nuriko handed it back, and Reijirou tucked it between his head and his shoulder. "Miaka? It's Reijirou again. Listen, I have an idea."   
"What?"   
"Would you like to get me out of here?"   
"YES!" Reijirou winced slightly at the volume. "I want you to get better and you two out of there as fast as possible."   
"Then why don't we wake up Mitsukake?"   
There was silence on both ends of the line. Reijirou couldn't see Miaka, but he suspected she looked something like Nuriko: eyes wide, mouth open, surprise plain on his face. Then Nuriko groaned and smacked himself in the forehead. "Nuriko no baka," he muttered.   
"Yes, yes, you're right. Then he can heal you. He also might be able to help later. Yes, that's best." Miaka seemed to be babbling. "When does he come by?"   
"I have no idea. It'd probably be best to be prepared for him. How soon can you come?"   
Miaka glanced at the computer's clock. "I'm expecting an e-mail at one-thirty, I'll come down after that. I don't think I'll bring Naora-chan."   
"That's probably smart. We'll see you then." Nuriko tapped him on the shoulder. "One moment Miaka. What _now_?" he asked, covering the mouthpiece.   
"Can I try that again?"   
Reijirou considered, then, against his better judgement, handed the receiver to Nuriko. Nuriko put it to his ear again, the right way. "Miaka? It's me again."   
"Will you two stop playing musical phone, it's confusing!"   
"What?"   
"Nothing. Will you tell Reijirou I'm bringing something for him as well?"   
"Yep."   
"Thanks. See you." There was a click, and a buzzing. Nuriko kept holding the phone to his ear. After a few seconds the buzzing began to annoy him, but he didn't know how to stop it. After a few more seconds, it was really getting on his nerves, and he pulled back his arm to smash it against the wall.   
"NO!!!"   
Nuriko stopped a bare two inches from the wall. "What?"   
"What are you doing?!"   
"I'm stopping that annoying sound."   
Reijirou groaned. "Give it to me." Nuriko handed the receiver back to him, and he hung it up, returning the phone to the table. "_That's_ how you stop that. If you'd broken it, I would have had to pay even _more_ money to the hospital. They don't like when things are broken."   
"Understandable." Nuriko grinned. "But you should've seen the look on your face-" WHUMPH. One of Reijirou's pillows hit him smack in the head.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Miaka walked into the room at quarter to two, lugging a battered briefcase with her. By that time Reijirou had read all the sleep-inducing magazines he'd been able to wheedle out of a not-so-compliant nurse and was flipping channels on the small TV bolted into the corner of the wall and the ceiling, wondering at the bad design of hospital rooms, purposefully made to give one cricks in the neck, and the lack of anything on besides outdated game shows and soap operas. Nuriko, on the other hand, was fascinated by the "little people" in the "magic box", looking up at it happily in awe. Miaka grinned when she saw them. "Bored, Reijirou?"   
"YES! Even though Ashitare didn't kill me, this might!"   
"Maybe this will help." She set the briefcase on the small table by the window and opened it, revealing a small but sturdy laptop computer, some hook-up wires, and three books, two of which Reijirou recognized immediately: the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho and its translation. He wondered, however, most about the computer.   
"Hey, Miaka, why do you have a laptop here? Uh-oh… No Nuriko, it's not a toy!" he yelled as he saw Nuriko's hand dart toward it.   
Nuriko gave him an exasperated look. "Hey, I've learned, all right? I won't hurt it, I promise, I just want to look." He was being serious. Miaka turned the briefcase so Nuriko had a better view. The seishi put out a cautious hand and touched it briefly, unsure of what another thing in this new world could do.   
Miaka laughed quietly. "It's fine Nuriko, it won't hurt you. Look." She opened the laptop, displaying the screen, keypad, and touch mouse, and put it on the table, facing him. "I use it to work. While you two read I'll be doing my job."   
"What do you do, Miaka?"   
She glanced back at Reijirou. "I do the Seinan web page. It doesn't pay much, but it's a pretty good stepping stone, I'm hoping for some better commissions from this one."   
"So that's why you brought it, I was wondering."   
"That's not all I brought. Here." She pulled the third book, a slim white volume, out of the briefcase and handed it to Reijirou. He quickly read the title. "Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho – Continuation. What's this one about?" he asked, glancing up at Miaka.   
"It's what happened after Tamahome was reborn. It picks up where the first left off. We were searching for Tamahome's memory jewels then." She grinned. "Somehow it got stuck behind the bed where I couldn't find it, or I would've had you read it yesterday."   
"Yesterday?" Reijirou blinked and shook his head slightly. "Seems more like a year ago… Hey, Nuriko!" He grinned. "We've been stuck together nearly a full day now!"   
"And we will be for much longer!" Nuriko grinned back, then they both laughed.   
Miaka laughed too and shooed at them with her hands. "Read, you two. Nuriko, you might have to explain some parts to him, it can be a little hard to understand in places." They both grinned at her, identical mischievous grins, and she groaned. "What have I let myself into, an afternoon with _two_ Nurikos?"   
"Probably more than you know." Reijirou began to read aloud, Nuriko sitting next to the bed, looking at the pages. The same title page, except an extended title, the same translators, the same note abou- …. Wait a minute, that was different. "Miaka, what does it mean when it says 'mostly translated from the original Chinese?'"   
"Oh, that, I should've explained that. Some of this happened before we acquired the scroll that told us the story and wasn't in it, so they added it in for completion's sake."   
"I see." Reijirou didn't really, but he went back to reading, about the trip Miaka, Tamahome, Keisuke, and Tetsuya had taken to visit the grave of Ohsugi Suzuno…   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
They were finished a couple of hours later. Reijirou shut the book and laid it on the bedside table, thoughtful rather than overwhelmed this time. "So that's what Rokou was like."   
Nuriko smiled at the floor. "Yes, my brother. He finally realized his own strength. He was always a little stupid." He raised his gaze to the wall, still smiling ironically. "But he came through. Strange, isn't it, that we were closer after I was dead?"   
Reijirou shrugged with one shoulder. "Maybe not in this case."   
"Oh." Miaka looked up from the laptop, her deep concentration broken by their voices. "Finished?"   
"Yep." Reijirou grinned. "I find it slightly ironic though…"   
"What?"   
"What Nuriko said to you about returning here. 'And there are other people there you still have to meet.' And winking."   
Nuriko grinned sheepishly. "Well, I was right, wasn't I? And at that time we didn't even know if we were going to try it, let alone if it would work."   
Miaka laughed. "Obviously it did."   
Nuriko had to laugh as well. "Uh-huh."   
Reijirou couldn't help it. "Although we're not _quite_ the same. I have better fashion sense than him."   
"Do you _want_ me to force a dress on you when you're better?"   
"Not at all." He grinned. "I just wanted to see what you would do to someone you couldn't bash."   
"I can grumble with the best of them."   
"It's true, he can. Reijirou, which do you think looks better?" Miaka turned her laptop to him, the screen showing two versions of a graphic: the main Seinan building and the school's logo on both of them, but one had the logo on the right while the other was on the left. Reijirou squinted a bit to see the screen. "I think the left."   
"Good, that's what I was thinking too." She turned the screen back to herself and got back to work seconds before the door banged open.   
"Reijirou! Nuriko! I'm back!" Risako ran in, holding her bag in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. "And guess what?! Oh, hello Miaka!"   
"Hi, what, and what's all that stuff?" Reijirou pointed to the papers.   
"Oh, this is stuff from Taka's class. But listen!" She dropped the papers on the table next to Miaka's briefcase, her bag on the floor, and peeled off her coat. "I was running to get to class on time, and yes, I took the long way, and suddenly this yellow convertible stopped by me, and I looked over and it was your sister, and there was a guy next to her in the passenger seat, and she asked if I wanted a ride, and I got in, and I got a clear look at the guy, and I think it was Hotohori!"   
"WHAT?!"   
"I said I think the guy in the car was Hotohori! He had the right color hair and the right colored eyes and looked just like I pictured him! And that voice! If that wasn't a royal voice I'll eat cardboard." She flopped in the spare chair.   
Miaka suddenly snapped her fingers. "That's it! Pictured!" She dug into the briefcase again and pulled out a small, framed photo. "I knew I was forgetting something. Here."  
  
She handed it to Risako, who glanced at it. Her eyes widened to amazing proportions. "I was right! I knew it was him! He was Hotohori!"   
"Ne, let me see." Reijirou reached out and tugged the picture away. It was a Polaroid photo of the seishi. He could identify everyone easily from the descriptions in the book and what Nuriko had told him. There was Nuriko, Mitsukake on his left, then Tasuki, then Chichiri. Tamahome was below Nuriko, then Miaka, making a peace sign, then Hotohori, then Chiriko. He could see water in the background. "Miaka, was this before you set out for Hokkan?"   
She grinned. "Yes. Tasuki wasn't too thrilled to know he could be 'duplicated'."   
Nuriko laughed. "I remember that. That was fun, posing for…. What was that word again?"   
"A photo."   
Something clicked in Reijirou's head. "Risako, did you catch Hotohori's new name?"   
She nodded vigorously. "Yeah, it's Suezo." He burst out laughing.   
Everyone's eyes turned to look at him curiously. After a few seconds he got his laughing more under control. "Nuriko… It's happened… Kourin's seeing the emperor!"   
Nuriko looked at him for a second, then giggled, then burst out laughing, shoulders shaking and leaning against the wall for support. "Only… the best… for my little sister!" he said through the laughing. "Only the best…"   
Reijirou was laughing too, and Miaka and Risako caught it. After a few minutes, everyone managed to settle down, and Reijirou handed the picture back to Miaka. "Well, that's one less to go. Thanks, Risako."   
Risako could feel her face color faintly, but she ignored it. "It was nothing. But what do we do now?"  
  
"We three are going to plan, you are going to read." Nuriko picked up the continuation and handed it to Risako. "More for you to take in."   
"Thanks," she said wryly. "It just keeps coming, doesn't it?" She opened the book and began reading without waiting for an answer, murmuring quietly to herself.   
Nuriko turned to Reijirou and Miaka. "All right, so we don't give the poor guy a heart attack, how are we going to break it to him?"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
A few hours later Reijirou, Nuriko, and Risako were idly talking about the events in the continuation and Miaka was absorbed in her graphics program, frowning slightly in concentration as her fingers danced over the keyboard and mouse. The clicking of the keys and the relaxed talk was making Reijirou feel drowsy again. He blinked to keep himself awake, but it didn't work at all. "Risako, would you move back, please?"   
Risako pushed her chair back about a foot. "Why?"   
"I'm tired of lying down." He pulled himself into a sitting position and was immediately shoved back down by a rush of purple. "Nuriko, let me go!"   
"Idiot! You can't get up, Dr. Seo said so!" Risako glared at him from next to Nuriko. "And until you're fixed you're _doing what he says,_ even if I have to sit on you!" Her eyes flashed with what looked dangerously like lightening.   
Nuriko still had him pinned by the shoulders and he could barely move. "Don't worry Risako, I can keep this up for awhile. Unless, of course, you want to sit on him- OW!"   
Risako lowered her fist. "Ecchi."   
The door opened. Reijirou turned his head (which was about the only part of himself he could move freely) to see who it was, and was not surprised to see Seo Murai. "Reijirou-san, how are you today?"   
"All right, considering I have gaping holes in me."   
Dr. Seo chuckled, something that suited him well with his smooth, deep voice. "Unfortunate, but in good spirits," he murmured, writing on his clipboard.   
"WHAT good spirits? I'm bored out of my mind! When can I move around again?!" Reijirou was shut up by an unexpected thermometer in his mouth.   
"Dr. Seo? May I ask you a question?" Miaka shut off her laptop and stood next to her chair. "It's slightly odd…"   
He nodded. "Go right ahead, it can't be too much worse than some."   
Miaka closed the laptop. "Had you met Reijirou before yesterday?"   
The thermometer beeped and Dr. Seo took it back, noting the temperature. "No, the first time I saw him was in surgery."   
"Did it feel like you'd met him before?"   
Dr Seo blinked, then slowly looked at Miaka, regarding her steadily with his penetrating stare. "Perhaps..."   
Miaka stared back, her gaze just as direct. "Did the entire situation feel familiar? Did you feel any sudden emotion?"   
He waited a moment before answering. "I felt… like something like that had happened before. I felt… sad, helpless, like I had already failed him." Reijirou shivered. "So... yes."   
Miaka gazed at him for another moment, then turned to the briefcase, picking up the laptop and placing it inside. Her hand found the translation of the Shi Jen Ten Chi Sho. "Then I think you'd better look at this."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! How will he react?! What's up with Kadiri?! What about Suezo?! Is Kaze-chan being too insane for her own good?! ~flops~ 


	12. Chapter 12

  
DISCLAIMER: This week I am pretending to be Lady Macbeth, not Watase Yu. So I can't even _pretend_ to own FY ~cries~   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: ~is SWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMPED~   
Week of finals. I have four. Two I don't have to worry about (there basically IS no final; it's opinion questions), one I'm very prepared for, and the last might just about kill me. It's not a traditional final by any means, much more of a project than a final, and it takes a LOOOOOOOOOOOOT of preparation.   
This wouldn't be so bad, but I also have Drama Banquet this week! ^^;;;;;;; Actually, by the time you're reading this Banquet will be over, but it's a LOT of work and a LONG evening and it cuts into my time to prep for my project-final. Swaaaaaaaamped ^^;;;   
(_Two days later..._) Yesp, Banquet was definitely fun and it was DEFINITELY long. I didn't get hom 'til past midnight, but I don't regret it at all. It's usually a pretty emotional night, but I was fine... until the Senior Walk and Final Bow. Lord, I saw my friends up there and they were crying their eyes out and I just _lost_ it. Thank god I brought LOTS of tissues; that's my job every year ^_^   
And the Project Final is over. In fact, the actual -thing- we'd been preparing for was very anticlimactic. We were all fretting over presentation that the actual play-acting went over our heads. 'Twas weird.   
People crying for specific characters ~pokes Mikka-chan and Elwing Silme~ they'll be here eventually! I promise, I'm gonna bring 'em in! It just might take awhile, please be patient!   
I'm gonna shut up and post this now ^_^   
  


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Dr. Seo regarded Miaka, and the book she held in her hand, for a minute before turning to look at Reijirou. "Let me go sign out, I'll be right back." He turned and quietly left the room.   
The four of them looked at each other nervously. Nuriko shrugged. "I guess we have a few minutes then." He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, looking at the floor.   
Abruptly Reijirou picked up the phone and dialed his home, momentarily wondering what the phone bill would be from the hospital. No one answered. The machine picked up after a few rings. "Hi, it's me, listen, can someone drop by soon and bring me some clothes? And books? And my CD player? And backpack? And… well, you get the picture. Thanks. Bye." He hung up and returned to staring at the wall, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden.   
"Bored?" Risako asked, looking out the window.   
"Severely. And I want my own clothes." Risako pinked slightly, still not looking at him, as if she had just remembered he was wearing one very uncomfortable hospital gown. Reijirou was amused by this. Apparently Nuriko was as well, because he glanced over at Risako and started laughing silently.   
"That's enough now," Miaka said calmly. The room lapsed back into silence again, everyone within their own thoughts. Their nerves were tangible in the suddenly static air. They were all apprehensive, even Miaka and Nuriko. Would Seo Murai believe their story? The man was still mostly an unknown entity. Reijirou at least knew what to expect with Gesshin – lots of yelling and cussing and denying it. But he was familiar. What about this man?   
They all jumped when the door opened with a click, quickly looking that way. Dr. Seo stepped back into the room, his long white coat and clipboard gone to reveal a casual sweater and slacks. There was no expression on his face. Reijirou briefly wondered if that was his way of preparing himself for the worst, but blinked in surprise when he saw the other three looking at him. Apparently he was supposed to begin. He cleared his throat nervously. "Have a seat, Dr. Seo."   
The large man simply sat and watched him, face not revealing anything.   
"Uh… do you remember asking me about the 'knife' wounds?"   
He nodded.   
"This is… sort of about that…"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Dr. Seo leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, biting his bottom lip. "Well, that would explain the strange wounds… but…"   
"But?" Miaka asked hesitantly.   
"But, how can that story really be true? You were possessed? You threw him into a street light? This ghost of your former life kept you alive? It sounds like something out of one of those new age books." His voice was alarmingly calm, as if he were trying to talk a bunch of nut cases out of believing the walls were attacking them.   
Reijirou sighed. He honestly could not blame him for thinking that way, but he wished the truth was a bit closer to what most people considered reality. "I know it sounds strange, but that's the way it happened."   
Dr. Seo simply shook his head, an unbelieving expression on his face.   
Nuriko sighed in his corner. "There's only one way to prove it quickly." He began glowing with a faint red light.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Murai was _not_ prepared for what came next. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a faint red light, and spun in that direction. His jaw dropped as he saw the light trace the outline of a person – a person who, from the side, had exactly the same profile as Reijirou-san. It was like looking at a reverse silhouette. He hadn't through it possible, but his mouth opened even further in disbelief as the image of the person started to form. That haircut… that stance… As the image got clearer he saw the telltale mole and the stubborn facial expression. But for the clothing the two were exactly alike. Except… this new copy of Reijirou looked like a ghost – pale; he could fuzzily see the opposite wall through him. Then the ghost turned to look straight at him, a direct stare, mimicking Murai's own from before.   
"Now do you believe?" The ghost asked as the red light dissipated from around him, vanishing into nothing. Even the voice was exactly like Reijirou-san's.   
He couldn't speak. His mouth opened and closed silently a couple of times, finding no words to express himself.   
"Oh well, I've been wanting to do this for awhile anyway." The ghost calmly walked over, another small flash of red light emitting from his unusual bracelets, and just as calmly picked up the chair Murai was sitting on. With one hand.   
Murai couldn't help it; he let out a small yelp of surprise and grabbed the arms of the chair, looking down at the floor from what was a long way up – even for him. His head was nearly touching the ceiling, and the ghost didn't even have his arm extended all the way. He didn't want to find out if this ghost could put him through to the next floor. He glanced down nervously. "C-Could you put me down now, please?"   
The ghost smirked and lowered him to the floor again, stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest. "Now do you believe?" he asked again.   
"H-Hai, I believe." Murai swept a hand over his face, wiping away the sweat that had appeared there. "How can I not after that?"   
Miaka-san came forward again, holding out the white book to him. "Then will you please read this tonight? It will explain everything better than we can."   
He hesitantly took the book, wondering what it was, but deciding to not dwell on that looked at Miaka. "What does all this have to do with me?"   
He saw the three humans wince. "Well… It's… complicated. Please, read the book. Oh, this one as well." She reached into the briefcase again and picked up another white book, much slimmer, and handed it to him. "It goes after the thick one." She took a deep breath and folded her hands in front of her. "And… we need to ask you a favor."   
"What?" he asked cautiously. Did these people want him to do something crazy?   
"Would you please heal Reijirou?"   
He blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. "I've already done what I can for him… I've put in stitches and given him blood, now it's up to his body to heal."   
Risako-san sighed and shook her head as the ghost stepped up to him again, planting its hands on its hips and bending over to look him straight in the eye. "You personally might not be able to do more, but Mitsukake can."   
"Who's that?" Murai had himself more under control at that point, he neither flinched nor moved as the ghost stared him down.   
"You, in a way. Just like I am Reijirou and vise versa, you are Mitsukake. And vice versa."   
"You mean…"   
The ghost nodded. "Yes. He's a former life of yours."   
Murai was quiet again, but in thought instead of in shock. The ghost blinked at him and straightened up, giving him more space. Miaka-san, Reijirou-san, and Risako-san were all looking at him.   
"What was this… Mitsukake person like?" he hesitantly asked after a few moments.   
He thought he saw a smile flicker across Miaka-san's face, but he couldn't be sure. "A lot like you, actually. You two look the same. You're both quiet, although you're a bit more open. He was very dedicated to his work – as a doctor no less – and his patients. In fact, he died to save the life of a tiny baby girl." Murai nodded silently, taking it in. "What else… he was in love with a woman named Shoka, but he lost her early, before they could be married. He never got over her death. He was very kind and considerate, always helping others and thinking of himself last."   
"He was the one to comfort everyone and keep them moving when I died," the ghost said quietly. "I was very grateful to him for that."   
"And he had powers." Miaka-san took another deep breath, and Murai could tell this would be harder to believe than the rest about the man. "He had the power to heal, which is why he became a doctor. He could fix anything, except death." Miaka-san nodded in Reijirou-san's direction. "If he were here now he could fix Reijirou perfectly, leaving no scar or any sign of injury."   
"Which is why we need him, and you." Reijirou-san's voice spoke up unexpectedly, and he whirled to face the boy in the bed. "There's something coming, something awful, which is threatening to kill everyone who in their past lives was involved with that book, such as you and I." Reijirou-san nodded towards the books Murai still held in his hands. "And their families and friends as well. That's what attacked and almost… killed me. The only reason I'm still alive is because Nuriko was with me. We have to let every person know so they're prepared and can defend themselves. And if defending means pulling former lives out of the book, then that's what we have to do."   
"Wait, are you saying my former life is in this book?" Murai held up the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho.   
Risako-san shook her head again and reached into Miaka-san's briefcase. "No, it's in here." Her hand drew out a book with a reddish-brown cover and pale binding, a very old-looking book. "You have a translation. This is the original, with the power."   
The ghost – no, Nuriko – walked over to Risako and gently touched the book. Its pages began to glow with a faint red light, the same as what he had emitted before. Apparently this effect also took Risako by surprise because she jumped slightly, eyes wider than normal, but settled down almost immediately. He briefly wondered if she were getting used to strange happenings. For his part he could only stare at the book, the light, and Nuriko. After a few moment Nuriko took his hand away and the glow slowly died.   
"Will you help us?" Miaka-san asked quietly when the last glimmer had vanished.   
Murai looked at each of them for a moment, searching their faces, even Nuriko's. They all had solemn, determined expressions. He didn't believe in mass hallucinations, and right in front of him was a… ghost? spirit? So he had no choice but to reluctantly take their story as true. And if this man, Mitsukake, really was him, then the part about the threat to their lives might be real as well…   
He better humor them, in any case. If they really were insane, it was a benign form, the form it was usually best to play along with for a little. And if he did, he might be able to get out of here sooner rather than later.   
"What do I have to do?"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Miaka sighed in relief and Risako smiled at Dr. Seo. "Thank you. Just sit there." She crossed the room to him and repeated the steps Miaka had taken with Reijirou just the day before, positioning his arms out in front of him, holding the book face up and flat. "Don't drop it. This will be a little startling, but it won't work if you let go. And concentrate on everything you know about Mitsukake, concentrate hard." She glanced back at Miaka, moving back to stand next to the bed. "Are you ready?"   
Miaka nodded resolutely and stepped up in front of the doctor, ready to assume her miko stance, but was interrupted by Reijirou. "Are you sure you'll be all right this time Miaka? I can't help you if you pass out now."   
Miaka smiled at him over her shoulder. "Yes, I will, I'm much stronger today. And with Nuriko here it will be easier, since he'll be giving me energy as well. The first one is always the hardest." Risako briefly wondered how she'd know that if she'd never done this before Nuriko, but focused on Miaka and Dr. Seo as Miaka folded her hands together, closed her eyes, and began to chant softly.   
Almost immediately the room took on a different quality, a soundless snapping and crackling working their way into the atmosphere. The air in the room almost seemed to boil and pop like thousands of little soap bubbles. Risako reached behind her and quietly closed the blinds. It wouldn't do to let anyone else see the strange goings-on in the room.   
Everyone else had their eyes closed, even Reijirou, concentrating and helping from the bed. Maybe that was why she was the only one to see the flash of bright red light that exploded away from the book in a circle, engulfing the room in its glow and not dissipating. The book began to release its silvery-grayish smoke, the sure signal that the summoning was working. It grew to the ceiling and out from the center of the book, much wider and higher than it had been the first time. She didn't gasp, and Dr. Seo didn't open his eyes as Reijirou had, but rather flexed his fingers as the smoke overwhelmed them. Risako wondered what it felt like, minutely sad that she'd never know. The dark shape began forming in the smoke, much larger than Nuriko's had been, seeming to match Dr. Seo inch for inch.   
Again she was reminded of the day before as Miaka's voice picked up sudden volume, climbing to a shout. "…from the book, please come out to us!" And again the smoke exploded, twisting into the light and vanishing, and again she was looking at a ghostly-pale person who could have been a twin to the one holding the book. He was wearing a white shirt, dark pants, and a type of yellow jacket that was tied with a dark sash. Around his head were tied two strips of cloth, one yellow like the jacket, the other purple, cinched so they crossed in front.   
All of a sudden she was very tired, and she leaned against the wall for support, wondering just how soundly she'd slept the night before. The new ghost landed easily on the floor and looked at Dr. Seo, seeming to study him, while Dr. Seo rose and regarded him back, both with curious expressions on their faces. Then, definitely unexpectedly, they both grinned.   
"Eeep," Miaka squeaked from where she'd retreated to.   
Mitsukake glanced in her direction. "Are you all right, Miaka?"   
"Y-Yes… it's just I think that's the first time I've seen you smile."   
Mitsukake glanced at Dr. Seo and they both started to laugh, deep, rumbling, identical laughs that suited them much better than their normal stoic expressions. Mitsukake walked over and hugged Miaka. "It's definitely not. Ahh, I've missed you, things were always a bit duller with you gone."   
Miaka smiled and hugged him back. "I've missed you, too."   
"And I don't count for anything?" Nuriko piped up, wearing his usual teasing grin.   
Mitsukake looked over at Nuriko. "You do, but you're definitely not as well-behaved as Miaka."   
Nuriko whistled. "Wow, your attitude's gotten much lighter… what happened?"   
Mitsukake smiled. "Shoka."   
Risako nodded to herself. Being reunited with one's love would put anyone in a better mood.   
"I'd get up and welcome you, but I'm under doctor's orders to stay still." Reijirou smirked from his bed.   
"Ahh, the new Nuriko. Pleasure to meet you."   
Nuriko nodded. "He's Reijirou. And she's Risako." He pointed in her direction.   
Mitsukake nodded at them both, then looked at Miaka. "I'm assuming, unless someone can tell me otherwise, we've come because of the threat."   
She nodded and launched into the entire explanation of everything that had happened so far, everything they'd found out, and everything that would probably happen, explaining the situation to Mitsukake and Dr. Seo. Nuriko helped her, filling in some of the blanks she didn't know or understand.   
Risako jumped slightly when something touched her wrist unexpectedly, glancing down and relaxing when she saw Reijirou's fingers grazing her skin to get her attention. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?" He said, not watching her, but the gathering around the foot of the bed.   
She nodded, hoping her voice didn't quiver and give away her sudden fatigue; she didn't want people fussing over her. "All except for the fainting miko thing."   
He grinned up at her, completely unsuspecting. "True."   
Risako couldn't conceal it much longer; she away from the bed and approached Miaka. "Miaka, how do you feel?"   
"I'm _fine_ already!"   
Nuriko frowned slightly at Miaka, remembering what had happened last time. "Sit." His tone of voice would accept no arguments, and Miaka sat, grumbling. "Don't say anything, you fainted last time!" Somehow he managed to sound like a concerned father and worried mother at the same time.   
"But I was doing it on my own then, I'm perfectly fine now!"   
Mitsukake also frowned slightly. "She fainted after she called you, Nuriko?"   
"Yeah, she used too much energy."   
Mitsukake knelt next to Miaka's chair and held out his left hand. Risako saw the red mark of "sadness" gradually fade into view on his palm and a soft green light surround Miaka, tinting the room. There was a slight change in Miaka's posture as she sat up straighter, and her eyes, which had been narrower than usual, opened the rest of the way. She grinned guiltily. "Well, maybe I was a _little_ tired…"   
"So that's what you meant when you said power…" Dr. Seo commented softly to one side. "If all the doctors in the world had that…" He fell silent again and shook his head.   
Mitsukake rose and placed his now-ordinary hand on Dr. Seo's shoulder. "Not all of them do, but you have a bit of it."   
"I do?"   
"Yeah, when you touched my bandages, the wounds hurt less. That's how we knew you were Mitsukake," Reijirou spoke up.   
"Speaking of which… Mitsukake, would you please heal Reijirou?" Miaka requested softly.   
The tall healer nodded. "I'll do what I can." He walked over to the bed and held his hand above Reijirou's prone form, and the soft green light again slowly filled the room. Risako felt more at peace as the light washed over her than she had been for days. He folded his hand, and the light vanished. "It's well begun, all there's left to do is speed up the natural healing."   
"Wait, Mitsukake." Dr. Seo unexpectedly remarked. All heads turned toward him. Risako was slightly amazed the doctor was this comfortable with Mitsukake this fast, but it was all to the better. "When you heal him, leave some scar. Our medicine isn't advanced enough to make him perfect after being wounded so badly. It might look suspicious otherwise."   
Mitsukake glanced at Reijirou again. "Do you mind?"   
"Of course not." Reijirou grinned impishly. "Scars attract the girls."   
Miaka, Dr. Seo, and Nuriko stifled laughter as Mitsukake smiled. "All right then." The healer closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening his hand once again. Most of the green light this time went into Reijirou, and he gasped. After a few seconds the healer opened his eyes and lowered his hand, and the light dissipated once again. "You should be fine now. I've left the scars, but they won't affect your movement. Try standing up."   
Reijirou nodded, grinning like crazy at being able to move again, and carefully pulled himself up into a sitting position. Risako saw Dr. Seo quietly leave the room. Nuriko walked over to the bed, offering him a hand, which Reijirou shook his head at. Nuriko shrugged and stayed where he was. Reijirou cautiously swung his legs out to dangle off the bed, then even more cautiously pulled himself up, standing on his own two feet. "Looks like a day of confinement isn't enough to WHOA!" He caught himself on Nuriko's shoulder as his knees started to give way.   
Nuriko grinned and stood him up straight again. "What were you going to say?" Reijirou just glared at him.   
Mitsukake chuckled. "You still need rest. You're healed now, but the effects of the blood loss and the healing have taken most of your energy. A good night's sleep should be enough to give you back full health."   
"Now, Reijirou-san, if you would please lie down on this." Dr. Seo came back, wheeling a gurney.   
"What for?" Reijirou inquired, nonetheless walking shakily over and sitting down.   
Dr. Seo smiled down at him. "We're going to take those stitches out. You don't need them anymore."   
"YEAH!" Reijirou lay down on the gurney, grinning happily as Dr. Seo pulled the thin blanket over him and pushed him out the door, Mitsukake and Nuriko following and talking.   
Miaka and Risako watched them leave, then Miaka stood up and stretched. "I'll be right back, I need some coffee. Want some?"   
Risako nodded. "Please, I need caffeine in my system." She dug in her pocket and pulled out her wallet, pulling out a few coins and handing them to Miaka. Miaka nodded and left also, still looking a bit tired, but walking steadily.   
Risako looked around the empty room and flopped in a chair, suddenly depressed in the silence. _All right, so now I'm used to being on the go. What do I do when there's nothing to do?_   
A sound from the hallway drew her gaze to the door. A hand, its fingers' long nails painted a vibrant blue, knocked on the open door, then the person came in without waiting for an answer. "Reijirou-chan, I've brought your stuff!" It was Chiaki, her thick braid swinging in her wake. She blinked when she saw Risako in there, alone. "Where's Reijirou-chan?"   
"The doctor took him down to surgery for a minute. He should be back soon."   
"Damn, I can't wait, I've got a date." Chiaki set down the large duffel bag and Reijirou's backpack next to the empty bed. "Can you tell him it's what he asked for?"   
Risako nodded. "Yeah, I will. Are you going out with Suezo?" Reijirou and Nuriko's comments from earlier flitted through her mind.   
Chiaki grinned. "Yep. We're going to have fun."   
Risako laughed. "I hope you do."   
"Ne, Risako-san…" Chiaki was suddenly serious. Risako glanced up at her and unconsciously shivered minutely. "Can I ask you a question?"   
"Hai, what is it?"   
"Well, it's about my brother… and you…"   
Risako blinked and forced down a groan. "What?"   
"You're here whenever I come here, and you were with Reijirou last night when everything happened. What's going on between you?"   
Risako barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes. "_Nothing_. We're friends, we have a couple of classes together, that's all."   
"Uh-huh." Chiaki clearly didn't believe a word of it. "Well, I have to be going, tell him I'll see him later. 'Bye." She waved and walked out the door.   
Risako allowed herself to groan as the door closed behind Chiaki. It wasn't the first time in the last couple hours she'd heard that question, and she was getting very tired of it. And why did people insist on seeing something between them that wasn't there? There wasn't any reason. None at all, she told herself firmly. None at all...   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: And FINALLY next chapter we get to the REALLY weird stuff. This is the point when I decided it was okay to have 9-page long chapters ^_^ I just couldn't fit everything in 13 into 7 pages (which was my maximum length until this point) and so I expanded. It definitely allows me some more flexibility.   
Ugh, wish me luck on the finals... I NEED IT!   
And if you have any questions, just ask! I'll see what I can do! ^_^ 


	13. Chapter 13

  
DISCLAIMER: I had Japanese candy today, it was sooooooo good. My friend who owned the candy even let me keep the container after it was done. You know what else is good and comes from Japan? Fushigi Yugi. But I don't have it. I have the DVDs, many many pictures from the internet, and both English and Japanese manga, but not Fushigi Yugi itself. Somehow I doubt that Watase Yuu-sama is gonna let me keep Fushigi Yugi...   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All right, now comes the part where I apologize for being a hypocrite and explain exactly _what_ I'm being a hypocrite about and, more importantly, _why_. I've said somewhere (can't remember exactly where) that this wasn't going to be a seishi/OC-romance story, and I meant it. But unfortunately it's not going to be that simple. But let me explain before you throw me to the snakes, and maybe you can forgive me ^^;;;;;   
All right, I've said before that this was the first fic I ever started writing. I started writing this a month before I even looked at the FY section on ff.n, although I'd been to the site in general before. And so I was pretty ignorant of the cliches, which helped me avoid a great many of them (for example, before I looked at ff.n, I never even considered the fact that a reincarnation can have the memories and the powers come flooding into them for... fill in a reason here. I just took the summoning thing for granted). But unfortunately not the OC-romance curse... Although it's not as bad as it sounds. I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted them to get together or not (in fact, even ~counts~ half a year after writing chapter 13, the one I'm posting now, I'm _still_ not sure if I'd have them get together or not if I was left to my own devices), and the story reflects that in a way. I think at the time I wrote this chapter I'd "decided" on a leave-people-hanging-as-to-if-they-do-or-don't approach, which means that I'd dance around it for awhile before giving the final judgement. And so there's stuff in the next few chapters that can easily be taken in a romantic way, a teasing romantic way, or anything else "romantic" you can think of. I've been trying to write it out of my chapters as I go along, which is one reason the link on my page is down - the versions of the chapters on my site are the "unmodified" versions, and don't _entirely_ flow with what I have up, although I'm not changing other things.   
However, I'm not taking out anything after this. ~waits for the commotion and uproar and shouts of rage to die down and dodges a tomato~ I dislike Mary-Sues more than the next ten people combined, but this isn't a Mary-Sue. It just got written with romantic tension in some scenes. In truth, if you want my honest opinion, I think all the romantic tension from Market got funneled over here ^^;;; There are some scenes that flat-out won't be there without it, especially one with Gesshin teasing Reijirou that I enjoy to the max. And my favorite line so far in this fic depends upon it entirely. ~shrugs~ It's gonna be there, but overall I don't think the outcome is going to be couple-dom, if for no other reason than I can't write romance. If that's not something you can accept, then you don't have to read it, I won't mind. But don't say I didn't warn you.   
.................. OK, how many of you skipped all that and came down here? ^^;;;;;;; Sorry for being so serious, but I felt it merited enforcing, especially after I promised none earlier. Hope everyone understands.   
Now for fun stuff! ^_^ **J. Liha**, if you can't tell by my ongoing ramble above, even _I'm_ not sure what's going on. I just write, I don't ask questions, especially when characters can possess you ^^;;;;;; Thanks **Lib-chan** for the well-wishes, I did good! Although I couldn't listen to Rent, because me no own the CDs (I downloaded every song onto my computer, it took a week!). **Enya**, thanks sweetie! ~huggles~ Sorry, me and cliffies have a firm, long-standing relationship ~firm nod~ I am in love with them. I shamelessly employ them to make people come back and read more ^_^ **Lilandra**, I try not to let my things die, but I may have to for awhile... check at the bottom for explanations about that. **qkslvr**, what language do you mean? I took Kadiri's name to my online Jap dictionary and dissected it because that's the type of nerd I am ^_^ Nothing there for "Kadiri" (although I'm the first to admit it's far from the complete Japanese language), but "ka" means "beautiful," "di" is "day," and "ri" is "advantage." They all have other meanings as well ("ri" also means "clever"), but nothing bad ^_^ Ain't it wonderful the way a word in one language can be disgusting but in another one it could be something entirely different?   
New paragraph! **Elwing Silme**, you weren't being pushy! ~grins~ We're just not there yet! Don't worry, you'll know when the time comes. **Kryssa**, I sincerely hope no one ever said seishi life could be boring, or they don't know the series very well, do they? ^_^ And **Chibigreenwizardmon**, I hope this one lives up to expectations. Actually, that note goes for everyone ^^;;; I do hope I don't disappoint. And I'm glad everyone likes Mits and Murai, I like 'em too! ^_^ Actually, I want Mits as my big brother... being an only child can suck sometimes.   
  


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"…and I can finally stand up and run again!" Reijirou finished up excitedly, babbling happily as Dr. Seo took out the stitches while Mistukake looked on in interest.   
"Well, not right away, Reijirou-san. You still need rest. One night, correct?" The doctor looked at Mitsukake briefly before clipping another stitch.   
"Yes." Mitsukake was splitting his attention between watching the process and looking around the operating room, an almost-comical expression of awe and apprehension on his face at the sight of all the medical equipment. "Amazing, the things from this world are truly beyond belief."   
Nuriko grinned, feeling proud of having finally gotten used to all the surprises around him – at least to the point where he didn't shriek at every one of them. "Just don't touch, they have a tendency to yell at you when you do."   
Reijirou shot him a mild "don't-push-your-luck" type of glare. "Only at you. And only because you try to wreck nearly everything." Nuriko just smiled cutely while the doctors chuckled.   
"Done with the arm." Dr. Seo pulled out the last stitch and set it on the small tray that was positioned next to the gurney. "Now, Reijirou-san, would you please sit up? The bandages will be easier to take off that way." Reijirou nodded and complied, hauling himself up with his arms, happy that the muscles didn't pull against the new scars. Dr. Seo and Mitsukake removed the bandages, standing next to each other and talking in quiet voices, gesturing at Reijirou. Dr. Seo nodded and began clipping the many stitches embedded in his torso, quickly pulling out the thin threads that had saved his life. He was almost sorry to see them go. Almost.   
After a few minutes the very last stitch was removed, and Reijirou lay down again, worn and beginning to feel drowsy. He briefly considered getting redressed, but sank into a warm stupor when the blanket was pulled over him again.   
"Ne, Mitsukake, do you think I could help him?" he heard Nuriko ask as his eyes closed.   
"Do you mean…" Reijirou assumed that was Mitsukake, it was impossible for him to tell the healer and the doctor apart by voice alone. He guessed Nuriko nodded, because one of the tall men began talking again, although he couldn't catch what it was. He heard Nuriko laugh, and the sound of hands being clapped together.   
Abruptly he was shocked awake, eyes flying open, as something warm hit his chest and seemed to enter him, filing him to the pores with warm, liquid fire. He felt… alive, complete, as he had once before. The reassuring weights were back around his wrists. _Let me guess._   
A laugh answered him in his own head, and once again his own voice responded with thoughts he wasn't thinking. _~ That's right, I'm in you again. ~_   
_Do I never get a say in this?_   
_~ Not usually, ~_ Nuriko replied in his typical cheerful manner.   
Reijirou blinked up at Dr. Seo and Mitsukake, both of whom were looking down at him in their studious fashion. "What's this all about now?"   
"Well, Nuriko had the idea that you would recover faster if he… helped you out," Mitsukake said in explanation. "It probably will work, seishi seem to have amazing healing capabilities. He can pass some of that on to you, but only if he's in you."   
_~ But I'm not possessing you, so don't worry about me doing anything weird with your body. ~_ He felt Nuriko grin mischievously. _~ At least, don't worry **yet**. ~_   
_I'm in trouble._ Nuriko just laughed as Dr. Seo wheeled the gurney out of surgery and back towards his room.   
Reijirou closed his eyes and decided to relax for awhile, hearing the doctors talk but not taking in what they were saying. Their deep voices were soothing, like deep instruments, and he began drifting off to sleep again, still feeling the liquid fire in his veins, the sign of Nuriko's presence in his body.   
_~ Ne, Reijirou, ~_ Nuriko said before he was completely asleep.   
_Wha?_ he replied sleepily.   
_~ This might sound a bit strange, but do you want to see some of my memories? ~_   
_What the...?_ What was he talking about?   
He heard Nuriko chuckle. _~ While I'm in you, I can share my memories with you. You can see what really happened to me, instead of just reading it in a book... ~_ His voice grew more serious. _~ It may help later if you know the whole story. ~_   
Reijirou subconsciously groaned. Would he never get a break from this until it was over? _Does it have to be now?_   
_~ Not at all. In fact, it'd probably work better when you're asleep. Getting tired of all this? ~_   
_You could say that,_ he responded dryly.   
_~ Getting annoyed? ~_ He felt Nuriko grin again.   
_I think that fits better._   
"We're here." Mitsukake opened the door to his room, and Dr. Seo pushed the gurney through the door. He had to stop fairly suddenly to avoid running into the bags that had appeared in the room, and Reijirou/Nuriko was given a slight jolt. "What's all that stuff?"   
"Oh." Risako looked up from her coffee and the book she was reading – Miaka was once again absorbed in her computer – and winced. She set down the cup and book and quickly picked up the bags. "Chiaki-san came by and left some things for you, Reijirou."   
"Finally, real clothes!"   
Risako grinned and set his backpack and duffel bag in a chair, where they were within easy reach of the stretcher, then took Miaka by the arm. "Come on, leave the boy in privacy." She literally dragged the older woman into the hall, laughing and ignoring the protests of "Wait! Waaaaaiiiiiit!" as Miaka was torn from her precious computer.   
The other three/four watched them go, a grin playing over Reijirou's/Nuriko's face, Dr. Seo and Mitsukake wearing identical looks of mild amusement. "That girl knows how to get what she wants," Reijirou commented. "Could you two please go out, too?" The tall doctors nodded and left, resuming their conversation where it had been interrupted by the baggage. Reijirou/Nuriko swung his legs over the side of the gurney, sitting up carefully, but thankfully not feeling like he would fall over as he had before. He stood up with equal caution and was relieved to find his legs plenty strong enough to support him. The sudden strength in his body prompted him to throw caution to the wind and grabbed the duffel bag, digging through it and throwing clothing everywhere, finally finding his sleep gear.   
He quickly pulled the clothes on, but didn't open the door to the others right away. Instead he repacked (or shoved everything back in the duffel bag), then spent a couple of minutes walking around the room, getting used to being on his feet again. It felt _wonderful_ to just be able to _move_. He tilted back his head and let out a small crow of triumph.   
Inside him, Nuriko giggled again. _~ I guess that means you're feeling better then. ~_   
_Damn straight I am!_ He sat in the unoccupied chair, stretching his legs to their full length, working out his unusued muscles. _And tomorrow I'm getting out of here, thank God – er, Suzaku._   
_~ And hopefully this will be over soon. ~_   
_Yeah, hopefully._ Reijirou reluctantly relinquished his seat in the chair with a sigh, and walked over to open the door to his friends again.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The next morning, Nuriko "sleeping" inside him (he could feel him snoring lightly), Reijirou checked himself out of the hospital. He went straight to Dr. Seo's office, wondering briefly if the man ever went home, and had his papers signed. He'd had to laugh when he'd seen what Dr. Seo had written on his release form.   
"Released against doctor's advice?"   
The older man grinned, as did Mitsukake, who was lounging in a spare chair. "Think about it. Today, true, you'd be well enough to leave – if you went to your house and did nothing but rest for about a week. If we don't want to attract undue attention, then we have to fib occasionally. Especially since you are quite obviously in perfect health once again."   
Reijirou nodded. "I guess I'm lucky I got you as a doctor then."   
Mitsukake shook his head. "That wasn't luck. That was fate. It was meant to happen."   
"Yeah, possibly. We'll see you two later then." He gathered his things and left the office, returning the doctors' waves over his shoulder.   
It felt great to be wearing his own clothes again, walking and talking like a normal person. It felt even better to step outside and feel the sunshine on his face, the wind whipping through his hair, feel totally _alive_. Having a near-death experience had subconsciously boosted his appreciation for his life higher than he'd thought possible.   
He felt a yawn in his mind, and his body suddenly stretched on its own, nearly falling down as it overbalanced. He grinned as it was righted. _Morning lazy._   
_~ Mmm… morning. Suzaku, that was more exhausting than I thought it'd be. ~ _Again his body stretched, rising on tiptoe and settling down again. Reijirou was somewhat grateful there were few to no passersby in that part of town at that time of day. _~ Giving you my memories took a lot out of me. ~_   
_Well? Did it work?_   
_~ Why don't you find out? Just concentrate on something you know I did and it should come to you. ~_ He felt Nuriko settle down again inside himself, pleasantly lethargic. He closed his eyes and picked a scene at random, one that had entertained him a lot even when he was just reading about it: when Nuriko and Hotohori had been captured by the bandits and made to be serving "girls". It took a second, but suddenly on his eyelids there was a miniature movie playing, all from a perspective he knew was Nuriko's. He could feel every emotion Nuriko had then, hear all his thoughts as well. It was like it was his own memory, and he was simply bringing it to mind again.   
_That's cool, how'd you do that?_   
_~ I'm not sure, I just knew I could and I did. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rest some more. ~_ It was almost like a light being turned off. Nuriko "rolled over" and "went back to sleep", leaving Reijirou in complete control of his body again.   
He glanced down the road in the direction of his home – the same way he'd stumbled up thirty-six hours before, bleeding slowly to death. He couldn't suppress a shudder, and turned his back on it to find the nearest bus stop in the other direction.   
Fifteen minutes later he was on the bus that would take him to the stop near his house. He dropped the correct change in the meter and took a seat, putting the duffel bag behind his feet and holding the backpack in his lap. He sat staring out the window as the scenery went by, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, depending on the traffic. He shuddered again as the bus went by the place of the fight, then blinked in surprise as they crawled farther away, turning around in his seat to make sure he'd seen right. That streetlight… the streetlight he'd punched Ashitare into was bent violently where the wolf-man's body had hit it. It was like some giant had grown tired with playing with giant-sized paper clips and planted it in the ground. He had caused that. With Nuriko inside him he could be stronger than anyone in history, except Nuriko himself. He moved his arm slightly, causing the bracelet to clink against his watch and smiling, slightly grimly, when he heard it. He'd be ready the next time.   
A tap on his shoulder drew his attention back into the bus. While he'd been privately thinking, the bus had stopped more than once, picking up several passengers. Seats were becoming a precious commodity. He looked up, blinking as he saw a guy a couple years older than him bent in what looked like a very uncomfortable position to avoid getting hit with a very large woman's very large shopping bag. "Hey, is this seat free?" he asked a bit desperately.   
"Sure, have it." Reijirou moved over as much as he could to give the guy room to squeeze in before the large woman claimed it. He managed to slide in and sit down just before the woman turned, preventing hysterical yelling.   
He sighed in relief. "Thank you, I did _not_ want to get hit with that thing again."   
Reijirou snorted slightly and grinned. "Don't worry, I can sympathize." He settled back in his own seat, ready to relax for awhile. For some reason he felt completely at ease with this guy.   
"Not to be pushy or anything, but you wouldn't happen to be Reijirou-san, would you?"   
The comfortable feeling sailed out the window. Reijirou quickly looked at him, sizing him up, and groaned. Stupid, idiot, how could he have missed it?!   
"What is it? Are you still sick?"   
"No, it's all right, you threw me for a loop, is all." He pushed his bangs out of his face, concealing a grimace with his hand. Chalk up another weird coincidence to Suzaku's account... "I'm Reijirou. I take it you're Suezo-san."   
Suezo grinned. "That's right, I guess Chiaki's been talking."   
"Yeah, and Risako told me what you looked like." He was sitting on a bus crawling through rush hour morning traffic a day and a half after he'd been almost fatally attacked with the former emperor next to him and he had no idea what to say. What do you talk about with the reincarnation of the guy _your_ former incarnation repeatedly claimed to love, especially when he doesn't know anything about all that yet?! Time to call out the reserves. _NURIKO! Nuriko, wake up!_   
He could've sworn he felt Nuriko try to push him away, but it didn't really work as well as the seishi might have hoped. He shouted again, and Nuriko's voice grumbled into being. _~ If you want me to be of any use later you're going to have to **let me recuperate.** ~_   
_Yeah, but look!_ He tried the mental-prodding thing himself, "grabbing" Nuriko by the "shoulders" and "shaking" him. _LOOK NOW!_   
Nuriko grumbled as he aligned his eyes with Reijirou's and sleepily looked at what Reijirou was so insistent about. _Then_ he woke up. _~ **HOLY SHIT!** ~_   
That amused Reijirou to no end. _You're starting to sound like Gesshin._   
_~ Tasuki, ~_ Nuriko automatically fired back. He was starting to panic. _~ Suzaku, what do we do now?! ~ _   
_Why do you think I woke you up?! I have no idea!_ Then he became aware that Suezo was speaking, and had been for awhile. "Sorry, what? I didn't hear that."   
"I said that I thought you were supposed to be in the hospital. Chiaki and I went there last night to bring you clothes." He glanced up and down, a cursory examination. "And apparently you got them."   
Reijirou grinned in relief. Something neutral! Clothing! "Yeah, thanks for bringing them. Hospital gowns are _not_ comfortable."  
  
Thankfully, Reijirou was beginning to calm down again. No matter what Nuriko thought or felt, he had no feelings for this guy except perhaps as someone cool to hang out with. He could see why he hadn't recognized Hotohori right away, even with the distinctive voice. His hair, which was obviously long, was pulled back into a loose ponytail, hiding behind his body and making it seem as if he was short-haired. His clothing was much more what Reijirou wore on the first day of class then what an emperor would wear, the jeans even more beat up than Reijirou's had been. He looked like... like a regular person. Reijirou briefly wondered if he was happier that way before Suezo's voice pulled him back to the present again.   
"I know, I've been in one or two myself." He looked at Reijirou once, with a mildly puzzled glance that made Reijirou want to lean away for some reason. "Sorry, but somehow… it kind of feels like I know you already."   
Bye bye comfortable feeling. _Oh. Shit. NURIKO!_   
_~ I know I know, but I don't know! Just wing it! ~_   
Reijirou tried to shrug casually, desperately wishing he was a better actor. "Chiaki and I can be a lot alike, maybe that's where you're getting it from."   
Suezo also shrugged. "Possibly." They seemingly settled into silence, but Reijirou's "internal dialogue" continued.   
_He seems happier, looser maybe._ Reijirou said off-handedly.   
_~ Yeah. He was a great emperor, but his personality was more like me or Tama, like a commoner. Probably part of the reason he sympathized with the common man so well. ~_   
_Yeah… wonder how he likes being one now._   
He felt Nuriko grin. _~ Remember, he doesn't know he was once the most powerful man in the entire country. He probably doesn't remember what it feels like to be anything BUT a common man. ~_   
_True._ They, too, lapsed into silence.   
A few minutes later they were at the stop before Reijirou's, and Suezo noticed their location at the same time Reijirou did. "You're going to need to get off." He looked around for a place to step to while Reijirou passed.   
Reijirou nodded. "Yeah, next is me. Um, Suezo-san?"   
"Yes?"   
Reijirou grinned impishly. "Don't tell Chiaki or my family I'm out. I wanna surprise 'em."   
Suezo laughed, that full laugh that Reijirou now knew had marked the Konan Emperor's happiest moments. This laugh seemed more used though. Reijirou thought he'd taken the "let down" from emperor to common really well. "All right, I won't. Planning on scaring them?"   
"How could you guess? Whoops, me." Suezo stood up and scooted back far enough in the aisle to give Reijirou room to drag his stuff out behind him as the bus pulled to a stop at the familiar little glass hut. "See you later, Suezo-san."   
"All right, Reijirou-san. Tell Chiaki hi for me."   
"I will." Reijirou yanked his bag through the door before it closed and began walking the block to his family's apartment. _Well, that could've gone a lot worse._   
_~ Definitely. Ugh, have any soap? I feel like washing my mouth out. ~_   
Reijirou smirked. _C'mon, it's not THAT bad._   
_~ No, but I sounded like TASUKI for Suzaku's sake! Bleh! ~_ Reijirou laughed the rest of the way to the apartment as Nuriko swore various things about never sounding like the crude-mouthed bandit again.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou considered himself very fortunate that no one answered the pounding he'd given the door. In fact, there was a small dent in the door after he was done. He chalked it up to one more strange effect Nuriko had on him and let himself in with his key.   
With Hajime and Chiaki at school, and his parents at work, the place seemed strangely quiet, even though someone had left the TV on. His stomach rumbled, and he went into the kitchen to find something to eat, glancing at the clock. 9:43. No one should be home for awhile. He could relax for a little and take a shower.   
First, however, his stomach demanded attention. "Yeah yeah, I'll feed you I'll feed you, give me a minute." He reached into the pantry and pulled out a random box of cereal, acutely aware that without help he'd never produce non-cardboard food like Gesshin had two days before.   
_~ What, you want to learn how to cook? ~_   
_Kind of, yeah, that way when I'm on my own I won't be eating meals-in-a-box forever._   
_~ I can probably talk you through it. Want to try? ~_   
He'd forgotten Nuriko had known how to cook; it was one of those little details that seemed to slip his mind easily. And as tempting as it was to have something _real_ to eat for the first time in two days, he was still wary. _You sure it's safe? You don't know what half this stuff does, or is._   
He felt Nuriko grin again. _~ You're not Tasuki. You won't set anything on fire. As long as you listen to me, that is. ~_   
Reijirou considered for exactly half a second before shoving the cereal back in the pantry and pushing up his sleeves. _All right, what do I do?_   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Half an hour later he was comfortably ensconced in his father's favorite easy chair, the big one right in front of the TV, watching the morning news and eating a breakfast he'd managed not to burn for once. He wasn't quite sure _what_ he was eating, but he knew what had gone into it and it tasted pretty damn good, so he wasn't complaining.   
Nuriko had finally left him, and was sprawled across the couch in the manner of someone too drained to move. Reijirou grinned; Nuriko had just fallen out of him onto the couch and hadn't budged since. It was pretty comical.   
The commercial break ended, and the obligatory older-but-you-could-tell-she-was-a-beauty-in-her-youth anchorwoman and also obligatory same-thing-goes anchorman came back on screen, shuffling papers. The anchorwoman looked at the camera with her Dazzling Professional Smile. "Welcome back, and hello to those of you just joining us. The city counsel…"   
"Reijirou?"   
He swallowed a mouthful of... something. "Yeah?"   
"What is this… program?" Nuriko paused, but he didn't stumble over the new word.   
"It's the news. This is how we know what's going on around the world. Hush, I want to listen." He'd been denied access to a newspaper for two days, there was no way he'd miss out on this. Nuriko shushed, either too fatigued to protest or actually taking an interest in it. Reijirou took another bite of Nuriko's cooking.   
"… And in an update, the male body found early this morning in a downtown alleyway has been identified. Lowle Adam, a freshman-" Reijirou choked, pounding on his chest and gasping for breath.   
"Reijirou?! What is it?!" Nuriko was by his side in an instant, helpfully banging him on the back to allow him to swallow. Reijirou quickly drank some water and waved Nuriko silent. He turned up the volume on the television, making sure he hadn't misheard.   
"… been reported missing three hours before his body was found. His parents told police he hadn't returned home after his classes yesterday. The cause of death has been attributed to blood loss sustained during the attack, and there is still no clue as to the party responsible. Police have admitted that Lowle is not the only one to have been attacked in this manner, and have said the other victim was also a male student at that university. They did, however, decline to release the other victim's name, saying that he was recuperating from the same types of wounds in one of the city's hospitals. The police are investigating possible connections to the victims through Seinan University, and urge-" Reijirou turned it off. He couldn't listen any more.   
"Reijirou?" Nuriko asked hesitantly. "What's going on? Not trying to be funny, but you look like you've just seen a ghost. You're as white as a sheet." Reijirou felt a ghostly hand press against his forehead. "Doesn't look like you have a fever though…"   
"Nakago." Reijirou spoke the name so quietly he could barely hear himself. Nuriko had to strain to make it out.   
"Huh? What? What about Nakago?" Nuriko sat next to him on the arm of the chair.   
"Nakago… he killed Nakago."   
Nuriko looked at him in confusion for a minute, then seemed to pale even more as his jaw slowly dropped, turning his head from Reijirou to the TV and back. "You mean…"   
Reijirou nodded, unable to speak.   
"Suzaku…" Nuriko breathed. "Suzaku, Seiryu, Genbu, Byakko… Gods above, help us all."   
Reijirou slowly bent his head, shaking it minutely. "If he can kill the strongest of us all… No one can beat him… We don't stand a chance…"   
"Iya." Something in Nuriko's voice made him look up. It wasn't forceful, it wasn't determined, there was just… something. He suddenly understood what had made Nuriko so important to everyone. "Ashitare-" Nuriko flinched a little as he said that name "-didn't kill the strongest of us. That boy wasn't the strongest. Nakago was, and Nakago hadn't been called. Right now you and I are the strongest." He sighed heavily. "If only that boy had Nakago with him… this entire thing may have been over…"   
"He didn't though." Reijirou hung his head again.   
Nuriko looked at him with intense sympathy. This was definitely the first time someone Reijirou's age, that he had known, had been killed. In some ways it was harder to deal with loss as an adult than as a kid, although he knew _he_ hadn't handled it the exact right way. Looking at Reijirou at that moment, Nuriko suddenly felt the urge to comfort him, as he had with Miaka, with Tamahome, with most of them. But this new him was still a puzzle, and he wasn't sure how to do it.   
He hesitantly put out a hand and placed it on Reijirou's shoulder, simply letting him know he was there for the time being. To his surprise Reijirou put his own hand over his. He seemed to draw strength from the seishi through their contact.   
After a few minutes Reijirou pushed Nuriko's hand off his shoulder and stood up, going to the telephone. He quickly punched in a number he'd learned by heart in the last two days. "Miaka? We've got problems. Big ones."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Half an hour later everything was arranged. He'd spoken briefly to Miaka, then called Risako's pager and left a message for her. A quick call to the hospital got him the information that Dr. Seo had finally gone home, and a helpful nurse gave him the number. The phone had been answered by a woman, speaking a bit loudly to be heard over the very juvenile male voice in the background, and had given him right to Dr. Seo. He'd agreed to the plan that Miaka and Reijirou had thought up in a hurry.   
Reijirou hung up the phone after saying goodbye to the doctor and Mitsukake. "Come on Nuriko, we're going."   
"Where? And what's going on?" Nuriko had sat silently by, watching with a serious expression on his face, as the plan had been made, not understanding half of it.   
"We're going to Gesshin's. We're waking him up before Ashitare goes after him." Chiaki mercifully hadn't taken the car that day. Reijirou scooped up the keys and pulled on a fresh jacket as he and Nuriko left the apartment, locking the door tightly. "Ashitare probably knows where Gesshin lives, since he was with me that night. We've got to get him…" Nuriko simply nodded and started jogging, proving his coping with new devices by easily opening the door to the stairs.   
Reijirou peeled out of the parking lot in the beat-up yellow convertible, Nuriko in the seat next to him, both mute and focused completely on the road ahead. Reijirou had never driven that way before: tight, controlled, and fast, like a professional racer. But inside he was hardening into a grim ball of determination. No one else would die while he had a say in it. This was just one step of many, but it was one more chance for life.   
Nuriko felt the same, with some slightly different reasons. When he and Chiriko and Mitsukake and Hotohori had died in the other world, they had known what they were getting into. They knew there was a chance they would die. So they'd been prepared for it. This new Nakago, Lowle Adam, hadn't known at all, was simply out having fun. And Reijirou wouldn't have known either had it not been for a string of lucky coincidences. This would stop. Now.   
Reijirou arrived in front of Gesshin's building in two-thirds of the time it normally took him and pulled into a space. He vaulted from the car and pounded inside the building, up the steps to the Ijiris' fourth floor apartment, Nuriko flying beside him. He skidded to a halt outside the door to 4C and banged on the door, hoping Gesshin wasn't working that morning.   
"Shit, I'm comin', I'm comin', hold yer damn horses." Gesshin opened the door and scowled at his visitor, a look that would've made Reijirou nervous if he'd been more like himself. "Fuck man, why're ya comin' poundin' around here NOW?!" He was discreetly trying to hide something behind his back.   
"Shut the hell up and listen to me." The tone in Reijirou's voice shocked Gesshin into silence. "You've gotta come with me. Now. There's no time to explain, but you've gotta." Fortunately Gesshin was wearing clothes, not his sleep stuff. Good. Less attention attracted that way.   
"Why?" Gesshin scowled again. "It's m' mornin' off, I don' have t' do anythin' I don' wan' t'day. Go away an' leave me alone." He slammed the door, but Nuriko caught it with his foot before it could close and kicked it open again.   
Reijirou and Nuriko stormed purposefully into the room. Nuriko still hadn't revealed himself to Gesshin, and wasn't planning on it. The boy was panicked enough as it was, as his rapidly widening eyes proved. Reijirou gave Gesshin the scowl to end all scowls. "You are coming with me."   
"Who says."   
Reijirou groaned and shot Nuriko a purposeful look. Nuriko nodded, understanding, and jumped. Once again Reijirou was filled with that liquid fire as Nuriko entered him. "I'm sorry man, but I've gotta do this. It's for your own good."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Minutes later Reijirou/Nuriko pulled into the hospital's parking lot, found a spot, and hauled the unconscious Gesshin out of the backseat. Flipping him easily over his shoulders, he walked quickly to the lobby where he'd agreed to meet Miaka.   
The automatic door opened to reveal Miaka, talking to an elderly lady, and a bored nurse behind the counter, reading a magazine. Miaka looked up as they entered and abruptly burst out into laughter.   
"Sorry, I had to knock him out to get him here. Where to?"   
"Just down that hall and to your right. His name's on the door," she said, pointing down the correct hallway. Reijirou/Nuriko nodded and started down the hall, walking swiftly and easily supporting his large burden.   
Miaka turned back to the nurse and the old woman before she followed. Both of them had stunned looks on their faces. Miaka smiled kindly. "He doesn't take well to getting shots."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Weird Stuff has begun! Honestly, was anyone expecting Adam to die?   
All right, yet another explanation. This one is nowhere near as complicated though.   
All through this past year at school (starting in September and ending in early April) I've been competing for the chance to go to GHP, or Governor's Honors Program. It's _very_ hard to get into, as you compete against people from all over the state, literally, and they only take a verrrrrrrrrry limited amount of students. I tried out in communicative arts (AKA comm arts, lit, Everything About the English Language Rolled Into One) and spent most of this past year in various states of nervousness and worry (and I thought my nails couldn't get any shorter...). My friends who were also trying out weren't any better, it's a nerve wracking process! Sheesh, they make you wait two months after the final interview to tell you if you're in or not!   
But I MADE IT! I nearly fainted when I heard, I was so excited. Good thing I didn't, I was in Calc at the time... One of 90 in the entire state (which I am not going to name here) to make it in comm arts. I still quite don't believe it. Anyway, what it entails is going away for six weeks (during the summer, obviously) to one of the state universities. I'm not even sure how I'm going to be able to WRITE down there, let alone upload. But I'll give it my best, I really will! The Upload Test will take place on June 17th, and if it works I'm gonna try to stick to my normal schedule. But if things suddenly stop that's why. I don't want you all to think I'm deserting you if that happens, I just can't get it to work! Although, at the moment I can't see any reason why it wouldn't. But we'll see!   
All right, maybe it _was_ as complicated. I can't tell a story in a short form. Ja neeeeee! ^_^ 


	14. Chapter 14

  
DISCLAIMER:   
DISCLAIMER II: This is the third or fourth time I've forgotten it. I'm such a ditz. But if you have to be told after all this time that _I_ don't own Fushigi Yugi, then you're even more of a ditz than me.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Remember what I said about romantic tension, that's my only warning for this chapter. Well, that and language ^^ Gesshin! You foul-mouth!   
I'm gonna try and do a sort of "mailing list" while I'm gone to let people know when I update stories - and if updates are even possible at all. If you wanna know when this story (or Market) is updated, just leave me your name and e-mail address somewhere, in a review or an e-mail or whatever, and tell me what story/stories you'd like to know about.   
OK, Answer the Questions session!   
Um, I guess you could say yes and no to the "my first fanfic" question. I started writing/posting another fanfic under a different name and in a completely different category last year, but it never really got off the ground - exactly four chapters in seven months. SHORT chapters, too. That one's been abandoned since last July, almost a full year. This is the first FY fic I ever started writing, although I didn't start posting it 'til January, so I was able to go back and reread it all and rewrite parts of it, using lessons learned on other stories. And I wrote before this, just not fanfics. (One of my mythology teacher's favorite things to do was give us a stereotypical myth-plot, like a Flood Myth, and have us come up with an all-new myth using that plot. We did Quest Myths, Flood Myths, Destruction Myths, Creation Myths, and more - it was pretty fun!) Hope that answers your question **Mercury Angel**!   
It wasn't physically hard to get in, but it was nerve-wracking and competitive on a completely different level than athletics (I've been through both, that two-month wait was soooo much worse than any sports event I ever entered). It's not college, but it takes place at a college, and a lot of people say it's the closest thing you could ever get to college while not being in it. I'm starting to get nervous and excited, I really don't know what to expect down there!   
I'm gonna try to keep the updates going while I'm down there, and I have recently found out that you have basically half the afternoon and the entire evening to do as you wish, so unless something unusual pops up I should be able to get to a computer. It all hinges on if the floppies I bought and the computers that are down there are compatible with ff.n. If I can do ff.n uploads I'm gonna try and update my site as well. Oh yeah, I need to take my table layout code down there as well... Thanks **Lib-chan**, you're the BEST!   
**SilverDragoness**, I'm worrying over just _which_ page you'd take out of Nuriko's book... Don't hurt me, please! ^^ **Chibigreenwizardmon** glad you liked the twist, hopefully you'll like what's coming up in the next few chapters as well! **Stormlight**, here's more, are you happy? ^_^ **qkslvr**, that is reaaaaaaally cool. Sorry, I have this fascination with languages ~grins~ Especially ones people don't think of a whole lot. And knowing slang in those languages is the best! **cory**, you rock. Seriously. Thanks for coming back and telling me I'm still doing good!   
**Kryssa**, you realize the thing didn't put your name in? But fear not! I recognized your closing line and did a little detective work! ^_^ I am inordinately pleased with myself about that for some reason... I bet you're right about the Mary Sue thing. I never wrote one (intentionally, this one probably comes the closest to a Mary Sue of anything I've put out), but it's verrrrrrrrrry widely known that I am bizarre and strange etc, and several other people _do_ write them. I admit some of them aren't bad, some are even very good, but a lot are fomulaic. Sigh. I really don't know what's gonna happen with these two at the end - although at the place I am now most of the characters like to give them a hard time ^_^ But that's just my teasing nature poking through, I can't help it. But thanks for saying it's believable, that makes me feel so much better! More at ease is probably the correct phrase. And I'm gonna let people wonder about how things end up with Ashitare at the climax - I know, but I'm not telling ~Evil Grin~   
~sighs~ **Mikka-chan**, I love you, I really do, but I really don't know what's going on or if there's going to be shounen ai, and I'm not writing in anything that doesn't fit with the flow of my story. I know a lot of people like Nuri/Hori (I do too if it's written well, such as Ryu-chan's and Mouse's stories) but in the good stories it always flows with everything else. I'm not gonna change the entire tone to pair them together if it doesn't fit. I'm writing off the top of my head here, so I can't say whether Nuri-chan still like Hotohori or not because I haven't figured that out. ~hugs Mikka-chan hard~ I'm sorry for sounding really annoying and irritating and non-listening and I don't want to hurt your feelings in any way. It's just... that's the way it's gotta be for this story. But I CAN promise that I don't put any intentionally-romantic scenes in - a lot of it's teasing the two involved ~coughcoughscenewithGesshininthischaptercough~ or feelings that come out of extreme situations. Nothing else. In fact, most of it IS teasing... ~grins~   
Progress update! This one's coming easily to me now! I finished chapter 22 and have already gotten a big chunk of 23 out of the way! Sha-WIIIIIING!   
  


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BAM.   
Reijirou tried to duck as pieces of old concrete both large and small went flying everywhere, but Nuriko held him upright. _~ Baka. ~_ Nuriko was amused by the instinctive reaction. _~You're punching **away** from yourself. That's where everything will fly to. ~_   
_Remind me again why we're doing this,_ Reijirou sighed, rubbing the knuckles of his right hand. They were scraped and bleeding from the hour of punching down crumbling walls he'd just endured. His left hand wasn't fairing much better. He cast a glance out the window a few feet away at the setting sun. They were on the sixth floor of a closed office building two blocks away from Gesshin's apartment. Reijirou had not wanted to come to the area again, but it was the only place he knew of that fit Nuriko's requirements: private, easy to get to, and no one would care about things being destroyed. The city was planning on tearing the building down soon, and vandals with spray paint had already been at the place several times. He severely doubted anyone would care about a few missing walls.   
He felt Nuriko sigh inside him. _~ Look, I know you don't like this, but we've got to toughen you up. You're strong, and together we're stronger, but you're not used to the type of fighting we'll be going through. ~   
Yeah, I know, but why **concrete**?_ He'd taught Nuriko another new word. _It hurts!   
~ That's the point! You'll get calluses a lot quicker on this rough stuff. Then you won't bleed or hurt. ~_ He broke off abruptly and Reijirou's body wheeled to face the entrance. _~ They're coming. ~   
At last. All right, out._ Nuriko separated himself from Reijirou and exited his "twin's" body, his pale-and-dark purple outfit standing out starkly against the mid-tone gray concrete walls. "Hey, Nuriko."   
"Hai?"   
"How do you do that? Know when they're coming like that."   
Nuriko grinned. "Seishi trait."   
No hope for learning that trick, then.   
A thud that sounded suspiciously like a body hitting the steel stairs outside the room, followed by a string of muffled profanities, drew Reijirou's attention to the door Nuriko's turn had made him face. Gesshin came through the empty frame, rubbing his shoulder and cursing under his breath, followed by a widely smirking Tasuki. "Better watch it there pal, ye're gonna take yer head off if ye're not careful."   
"Shut up," Gesshin growled. Reijirou and Nuriko grinned. The two redheads were getting along much better.   
The day before Reijirou had arrived in Dr. Seo's office to find him and Mitsukake reading the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho (for the third time). The doctor and healer helped Reijirou, Nuriko, and Miaka revive Gesshin, then Reijirou/Nuriko had literally held him down while they forced the truth on him. Reijirou had grinned when his prediction had come true: Gesshin had sworn, denied, flailed, yelled, along with various other things, and had been shocked into silence when Nuriko had appeared. Risako had rushed in then, saying she'd never have time to do her research, to which Reijirou had countered at least it wasn't happening during classes. The six of them had taken the opportunity presented by Gesshin's silence and performed what had to be the most haphazard calling ceremony they ever would. Reijirou had been wrong: Gesshin hadn't tried to run out of the room screaming, but only because he'd been petrified with fear (Risako conceded him the point). Nuriko and a much more subdued Mitsukake had an enthusiastic reunion with Tasuki, who was as ghostly pale as the other two. Miaka hadn't been in as bad shape as even after Mitsukake's summoning and promptly glomped onto the bandit, hugging him tightly as she had Nuriko. It seemed Reijirou was the only one to notice Risako subtly brace herself against the wall with her hands, looking worn and slightly pale. But in all the excitement of trying to get Gesshin to actually _look_ at Tasuki, then trying to catch him when he'd bolted from the room, he didn't get a chance to ask her what was wrong.   
Tasuki turned his smirk to Reijirou. "Why'd ya have t' go and make th' new me so un'daptable t' change?"   
Reijirou grinned back; he got along with Tasuki as he got along with Gesshin. "I didn't do it, he's been like that since we met."   
"No I have NOT!"   
"Yes you have."   
Gesshin suddenly grinned evilly. "Better watch it or I'll tell 'em what _ya_ were like as a kid – _Reijie-chan_."   
Reijirou's eyes widened in disbelief, then he quickly grabbed the taller boy by the shirt collar and clouted him across the head. "SHUT UP!"   
But the damage had been done. Reijirou heard Nuriko snickering in the background and quickly looked at him. The seishi wore their shared mischievous expression yet again, making him dread what would happen. "Reijie-chan? Hmm…" He deliberately looked up at Reijirou, smiling innocently. "This could have some interesting possibilities."   
Reijirou groaned. "Can't you keep your big mouth _shut_ Gesshin?!"   
"Why? Ya embarrassed?" His fangs showed nicely as he smirked. "'fraid a certain… _person's_ gonna find out? Well, Reijie-chan?"   
"Stop saying that already!"   
"Who's this _certain person_ ye're talkin' 'bout?" Tasuki inquired, picking up on potential blackmail material. "'ave I met 'em already?"   
"Stop stop stop stop stop!"   
Gesshin ignored him. "Yeah, she was there yesterday, ya r'member her."   
Tasuki's eyes widened frighteningly. "_MIAKA?!_"   
"Suzaku, I HOPE not!" Nuriko piped up. "She's had too many guys after her in the past as it is, we don't need _another_ one doing that!"   
"Ferget Miaka, it's not her already baka." Gesshin aimed a friendly punch at Tasuki, which the bandit ducked with a grin. "Think back. I know ya were bein' assaulted by Nuriko-"   
"Hey!"   
"-but do ya r'member th' other girl? Th' one with long red hair?"   
"Shut up already, Fangy."   
"Oh yeah, th' one who ran off somewhere right af'er. Wha's the name… Risako."   
"Yeah, her. Well, Reijie-chan over there-" Nuriko had to grab Reijirou, who was red as a tomato, to keep him from attacking Gesshin "-wants t' go after _her_. And _she_ wants t' go after Reijie-chan, don't ask me why she wants t' do that though. And they're _both_ too damn chicken t' admit it." Gesshin grinned proudly as Nuriko tried to wrestle the furiously protesting Reijirou to the floor, not succeeding all that well.   
Tasuki's face lit up in understanding. "I get it! So she's shy and he's jus' a wimp."   
"That's 'bout it."   
"What's wrong with him? He fuckin' stupid 'r somethin'? What I saw looked pretty damn good."   
"And she's smart and she's in great shape. Reijie-chan's got his head on the wron' fuckin' way."   
"Hell, acourse!" Tasuki grinned evilly, exactly like Gesshin had just minutes before, and elbowed his counterpart in the side. "Na, ya know what?"   
"What?"   
"I kinda envy ol' Reijie-chan over there. She looked like a girl ya could have fun with, if ya know what I mean."   
"Especially when ya got the place t' yerselves and no one there t' catch ya!"   
"My point 'xactly!"   
BAM.   
Two new Tasuki/Gesshin-sized holes appeared in the concrete wall Reijirou/Nuriko had been systematically destroying earlier, precise as if they had been removed with cookie-cutters. Reijirou and Nuriko slowly lowered their raised fists, glaring hard enough to put a few more holes through the wall with their eyes alone.   
Muffled groans assured them that at least one of their victims (the one that needed to be) was alive as Reijirou stuck his head through Gesshin's hole and Nuriko through Tasuki's, assessing the damage. They didn't seem much the worse for wear; both of them had looked a lot worse in the past at some point. So the boys abandoned them in their new room.   
"See? You're doing better already," Nuriko commented after a moment, when both of the victims could be heard moving around next door.   
"Get me mad enough and it's not hard," Reijirou replied, smacking his fist into his left palm.   
"Hmm, might wanna keep those two around then… nonononowaitwait! You don't want to hit me!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"So why're we here? I jus' got off work, I gotta get home soon." Gesshin was holding a Coldpak to his head, just over the spot where a very large bump could be seen swelling. Reijirou, his knuckles bandaged, thought Dr. Seo had had incredible foresight when he had provided a portable first aid kit. "Mitsuyo's gonna be home soon, I gotta make dinner."   
"You're getting incredibly repetitive. Maybe all that smacking around finally did something to your brain." Reijirou paused, then smirked. "Wait, you didn't have one in the first place."   
"Cut it out you two, even _Tasuki's_ behaving better than you." Nuriko sighed. "And you know why you're here. That call earlier today." Reijirou and Nuriko had come back from Reijirou's English class, making a brief stop for some food, and found a hurried message from Gesshin on the machine. "It wasn't very specific."   
Gesshin grimaced. "I didn' have time t' leave a better one, and I figgered if yer dad heard it, ye'd be grounded or sent t' a shrink. _He_ showed up at th' restaurant t'day."   
_He…_ Reijirou shuddered. "Ashitare." It wasn't a question.   
Tasuki nodded grimly. "I watched him in that place, an' followed him a bit after. All th' time in there 'e was watchin' Gesshin, keepin' track of him like he was huntin' him or somethin'."   
"Can ya maybe leave out th' phrase 'huntin' him'? Gives me th' creeps." Gesshin also shuddered. "I wasn' his waiter, thank god, but he looked jus' like ya said he would – really big, scar, everythin'. I could feel his eyes... _eye_ on me all th' time. Freaky."   
"What did he do after he left the restaurant?" Nuriko managed to keep his voice steady, though even he was somewhat scared. "Where did he go? What way did he turn?"   
"He turned left, so he musta gone north. At least fer a little." Tasuki sighed and slumped against the wall. "I didn' follow him long enough fer him t' make a turn, I wanted t' keep an eye on Gesshin in case he had others doin' some 'f his fuckin' dirty work."   
"Man, wouldja stop talkin' like that?! I'm gonna get freakin' paranoid!" Gesshin said.   
"North…" Reijirou closed his eyes, trying to picture what all lay in that area. It was mostly the places where the high school and college kids hung out, lots of cheap coffee places, bargain clothing stores, and… He inhaled sharply as his eyes flew open. "Come on. Right now." He stood and began sprinting out of the room and down the stairs, trailing two confused but grim seishi and one person who was slowly beginning to understand.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"HER?!"   
Nuriko grabbed Tasuki from behind and clamped a hand over his mouth, restraining the flailing arms with his free one. Reijirou glared back at him briefly, pausing as he opened the door to the music store. "Yeah, _her_. The one you killed. The one who will BE killed if we don't do something about it."   
"Lay off her man, she's act'ally kinda coo," Gesshin added, determined to set his demented clone straight. "She went through some messed-up shit in yer world, ya can' deny that. But here she's just a reg'lar person."   
"And she's my friend." Reijirou glanced once more through the window, hoping Kadiri hadn't seen him and Gesshin apparently talking to thin air, but fortunately she was busy ringing up a customer. "For the last time, come on." He pushed open the door the rest of the way, causing the large poster taped to it to flutter in the breeze, and tried to act completely normal as he walked in. "Hey, Kadiri!"   
"Reijirou!" She looked surprised to see him, but finished with her customer before sprinting over to them and throwing her arms around his shoulders in relief. "You're okay! The way you looked last time had me worried, and you _know_ I don't do that often!"   
Reijirou grinned and hugged her back quickly. "I know, I know. So what's been going on around here?"   
"Not much. Oh, Gesshin's here too, hi there." They grinned at each other. They had met more than once before, and the results were typically… interesting. Kadiri was pretty much the only female Reijirou knew who, when she was in the mood, would match Gesshin's language with her own, even fouler version. Their contests could be spectator events. "Shunji's been in this damn twist since you got hurt, muttering about stuff like 'employee compensation' and 'tax deductions'. I let him deal with it. We hired that new guy that applied, but he hasn't started working yet. Oh, and the latest shipment's come in, wanna see it?"   
"Always!"   
"Can I come too?"   
Kadiri glanced at Gesshin's comical fake pathetic-looking expression and grinned. "I guess, just don't try to take anything, all hell'll break loose on ya." Reijirou and Nuriko swallowed laughter over his protests that he couldn't _believe_ he would _ever_ take _anything_, although in this case it was probably true, as she was also the woman he feared the most of all he knew. The boys and Nuriko, dragging the still-protesting Tasuki, followed Kadiri to the back stock room.   
Reijirou grinned widely at all the nice cardboard boxes that waited to be unpacked, fresh music to be tried out. In some ways he loved music almost as much as running, and while he couldn't play worth grass he was a pretty decent singer. He could practically feel his latest paycheck waiting to rip into some of those boxes, but reminded himself that now he needed a new jacket more. Someone cleared their throat and he looked back to find Nuriko, who had finally been able to let Tasuki go, staring at him seriously. He reluctantly dragged his mind back to the present and borrowed Nuriko's expression to look at Kadiri. "Actually, this is a good place to talk."   
"Talk? About what?" She grabbed one of the chairs scattered around the clear area of the floor and pulled it over to her, straddling it backwards and folding her arms over the back. "What's going on?"   
Reijirou grabbed two chairs and pushed one to Gesshin, who sat with a thud, the two seishi watching from behind him. Reijirou grimaced as he took his seat. They couldn't tell her everything, not until they had found Yui, who had seemed to disappear. But she could definitely be on guard. "We have something to ask you, something pretty serious."   
"What?"   
"There's a guy – really big, probably seven feet tall, longish blue-gray hair, x-shaped scar over one eye, and way too many muscles. Have you seen him?"   
She glanced down at the floor, her brow furrowed in thought. "I don't think so…"   
"Are you sure? Try to think hard…"   
"Wait… did he look kind of wild? Feral, maybe?"   
"Yes." Reijirou grew even grimmer. "Then you've seen him?"   
She nodded, wine colored-hair bouncing. "I guess I pushed it out of my mind, that guy was a fuckin' creep. Yesterday he came in and asked for some obscure CD I've never heard of, which was really strange. I thought I knew nearly everyone in the music business. He seemed kinda pissed that we didn't have it, if it even exists, and when I tried to give him the name of another store he could look he stalked out." She made a face. "Not a customer I was sorry to lose. What about him?"   
"You might find this kind of hard to believe…" Reijirou drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "He's the one that did this to me."   
Kadiri's chair crashed to the ground as she jumped to her feet, a look of complete shock and anger on her face. "_WHAT?!_"   
Gesshin nodded unhappily. "He did it. Damn bastard snuck up on him af'er he dropped me off at my place and nearly killed him. Then earlier t'day he came t' my new job and watched me. He didn' do anythin', jus' sat there, ordered, and stared at me the entire time he was there." He shuddered minutely. "Freaky. And _then_ when he left, Ta- t' go somewhere, he came up t' this area."   
"Is this fuckin' freak stalking us or something?!"   
"Looks like it. And… he's already killed someone," Reijirou added quietly.   
Kadiri paled several shades, her arms falling limply to her sides. "W-What did you just say?"   
"He's killed already. Have you heard about Lowle Adam?" Reijirou kept a close eye on her, ready to grab her if the news overwhelmed her.   
She swallowed minutely and nodded. "The college student they found yesterday… they said he was attacked… as was another Seinan student… It was you, wasn't it?" She only waited for Reijirou to nod before continuing. "But you got away and they didn't release your name. And… he didn't. Oh god. Oh god…" Reijirou and Gesshin both jumped forward as she began to sink slowly to the floor. Gesshin, being closer, caught her before she hit, and Reijirou quickly righted her chair. Gesshin made her sit, and they watched her anxiously while she tried to recover from the shock.   
"Ya broke it too fast, man," Gesshin muttered under his breath.   
"She's gotta know, how else could I tell her? Kadiri? You okay now?"   
"You come here and tell me this fucking mental case wants to attack us or kill us and you expect me to be _okay?!_" Her voice was very forceful, and Reijirou grinned slightly. She'd be all right. "Good god, how do you _expect_ me to take it?"   
He smirked. "More along the lines of throwing your chair at me and saying 'You're fucking kidding!' but this might be better."   
"I can still do that."   
"I wanna ticket!"   
Reijirou clouted Gesshin over the head. "Shut up idiot. Really Kadiri, be careful, all right? We don't want you to get hurt."   
"Don't worry, I can take care of myself. But thanks for telling me." She glanced up at the large digital clock that hung above the door to the storeroom and sighed. "I better get back to work, Shunji's gonna kill me if he knows I walked away from the desk for that long." She stood up and brushed off her jeans, shaking her head to make her hair fall back in place. "Don't you two get into any of those boxes, or I'll have your hides." She winked and walked toward the door.   
"Kadiri, hey, wait!" A flash of red burst past Reijirou to grab Kadiri's arm. "Look, promise us ya won' go anywhere alone. Tha's how he goes after people, when they don' got anyone else aroun' t' stop him." Gesshin looked about as serious as Reijirou had ever seen him, and he didn't let go of her when she tried to pull out of his grip. "_Promise_ or I'm gonna start followin' ya everywhere t' make sure he doesn' go af'er ya."   
"All right, all right, damnit I promise! Now let go, you hurt!" Gesshin finally relaxed his grip and Kadiri yanked free. "You're almost as bad as Reijirou, you know that?" She glared mildly at him and stalked into the main store.   
A string of cuss words from behind them heralded the end of Tasuki's silence. "… why'd we have to _fuckin'_ tell _her?_ She's the damned _enemy!_"   
"Tasuki, we said it once, we won't say it again, but _she's not the same person!_" Nuriko glared at Tasuki, looking unusually dangerous. "Kadiri is a good person. Soi _would_ have been a good person if her life had been better. So just _shut the hell up about it!_" CRACK. Tasuki sailed across the room as Gesshin and Reijirou shook their heads.   
"Tell me man, am I really that bad?"   
Reijirou grinned wickedly. "Worse, in some ways."   
"Remind me t' see a psychoanalys' when all this is over."   
"Will do."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Later that evening Reijirou was lying on his bed, trying to do his English work, when the phone rang. He ignored it, concentrating on memorizing the conjugations of English verbs, Nuriko peering interestedly over his shoulder. The rest of his family that were home ignored it as well, and it rang five times before he groaned and reached over to snag the portable out of the stand on the table next to his bed. "Damnit, can't they get it for _once_…" He hit the Talk button and contained a sigh as he brought it to his ear, pushing his shoulder up to hold it there and picking up his book again. "Enomoto residence," he sighed.   
"Reijirou? Is that you?" Her voice sounded slightly panicked and she was breathing hard.   
"Risako? What is it? Are you okay?" He closed the book and tossed it on the floor, sitting up and waving away Nuriko's questioning looks for the moment.   
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She took a deep breath, held it for a second, then let it out slowly, calming herself. "But I just saw him."   
"You what? _Him?_ What happened?"   
"I was at the movies… you know, the place near Seinan, and as I was leaving I felt these _eyes_ watching me, and I just sort of casually glanced around and I saw him duck into an alley!" Despite her efforts, Risako's voice gradually grew louder and more panicked, rising sharply on the last few words. She was very, very upset.   
"Whoa, calm down, where are you? Are you alone?"   
"I'm in a phone booth about a block away from Seinan. Chomei-kun was with me, but he left before it happened."   
"Chomei-kun?" Reijirou pushed back a sudden flash of envy. "Do you want me to come get you?"   
"Could you? Please? I don't know what to do… I'm frightened."   
Reijirou blinked at the phone, startled by both the words and the tone in which she said them – whispered, quivering. Risako, frightened? She was turning out to be as solid as a rock… Something else had to have happened. "Okay, stay right there, I'm coming."   
"Thank you."   
He hung up and pushed himself off the bed, vaulting over to his closet to find a jacket. Nuriko jumped out of his way, more than a bit confused. "What's going on?"   
"She just saw Ashitare and she's scared out of her mind. Come on, we're going." He quickly shrugged the jacket on and grabbed the car keys, stuffing them in his pocket as he opened the door.   
Nuriko wondered cynically how many times the two of them would be running down the stairs to the _garage_ – he'd learned yet another new word – and jumping into the car before this was all over. He was almost beginning to wish he'd never been to Miaka's world, but mentally kicked himself for thinking along those lines – if he hadn't, Reijirou at least would also be dead. And probably several more of them, as well. He cast a quick glance at his modern counterpart once they were safely in the car. This time, there was something slightly different about him, a different look to his face. Nuriko could tell what it was; after all, he'd had enough experience with those emotions himself – worry, anger, and jealousy. He could only briefly wonder if Reijirou was fit to drive before the car peeled out, leaving visible tire tracks in the exit.   
Reijirou might have broken Chiaki's speed record for the fastest trip to campus. Once they arrived at the main building he simply went down each street that passed it for a block, looking for the telephone booth Risako had mentioned. They got lucky with the third street – in the phone booth on the corner a dark shape with long hair was leaning against the glass, phone pressed to her ear as if she were making a call.   
Reijirou pulled into a space on the curb and hurtled out of the car without bothering to open the door, raced to the booth and pounded on the glass with his fist. Inside, Risako jumped and whirled to face the noise. Relief broke over her face as she saw who it was. She jammed the phone back in the cradle, wrenched open the door, and practically fell out of the booth and onto Reijirou.   
He caught her and pulled her back to her feet, trying to see if she was hurt. "Risako? Are you okay?"   
"…so scared… I was so scared." She was clutching his sleeves, crying into his shoulder. Whatever had happened must have been worse than he'd thought. He glanced over at Nuriko, now standing next to the car. The seishi shrugged and shook his head; he had no more idea than Reijirou about what had passed. "Scared…"   
"Risako, what happened? You wouldn't get this upset over just seeing him…" He tried to keep his voice quiet and calm but had a slightly hard time doing that as he wanted to find whoever did this to her and hurt them severely.   
She gulped and drew a shuddering breath. "After… after I saw… _him_ go into the alley, these two guys came out. They… they were looking for me, I know, because…" She took another breath. "Because when they saw me they headed my way. I… I could see them, but they didn't know that, so I started walking away like normal, but they followed me. And I walked a little faster, and so did they. Then when we were away from people they started running and I stopped thinking and ran for my life, but they were too quick, and they caught me not far from here, and…" She sobbed, unable to continue speaking.   
"Oh my god…" Reijirou stared down at her in shock. Now it wasn't just pain they would get. "I'll kill them. Are you…"   
"They didn't… didn't do anything. A car came by and scared them off. But they…" She buried her face in his chest, shaking with her sobs. "I was so scared."   
He reached up and tried to soothe her, gently stroking her hair. "It's all right, it won't happen, I promise. Those bastards'll get what they deserve." She continued crying, but less violently than she had been. She was also going limp; the evening had worn her out. "Come on, let's get you out of here." She nodded silently and let him steer her over to the car. Nuriko opened the door, watching her with great concern on his face. Reijirou ended up having to pick her up and put her in the car, as she wasn't in enough control at the moment to do it herself. The two boys exchanged quick, worried looks, then Nuriko hopped into the backseat and Reijirou went around and resumed his place behind the wheel. He started the engine, ignoring its loud protests, and set off in the direction of Risako's home.   
They had barely gotten two blocks from the campus when she spoke up suddenly. "Stop the car."   
"What?"   
"I said… stop the car. I can't go home like this. I can't…" She didn't bother to wipe away the tears that were still flowing freely from her closed eyes. "I just can't."   
"Risako…" Nuriko whispered from the backseat. A glance in the rearview showed Reijirou that the seishi's own cheeks were damp with tears, although he was trying to wipe them away. He glanced to the side at her still form, lit up only by the streetlights passing by overhead, and made a quick decision. He turned right at the next intersection, then continued for three blocks before pulling in to park by a meter. "Come on Risako, let's get out."   
She finally opened her eyes to see the small park where they had first "met" Miaka, when Gesshin had tried to mug her. It looked almost exactly the same, but the cheerful sunlight was gone and the people that passed by were few and far between. The college nightlife lay on the other side of the campus, and most of the stores and restaurants had closed for the night. But even with the lonely feeling it seemed safe – only one person she knew, well, two really, and the comforting darkness all around… She pushed open her door and stood shakily on her feet, but at least she stood on her own. Reijirou circled the car to stand next to her and offered her his hand, which she gratefully accepted. He glanced at Nuriko, who shook his head and remained in the car. Reijirou nodded minutely, silently thanking him, then gently led Risako into the park.   
They walked for awhile, not talking, simply moving together. She seemed to get a little bit stronger with every step, but still used him for support at times. He was glad to help and sickened that people would do something that would make a more stable person than he go off the deep end, and mentally swore revenge. But he kept the thoughts to himself.   
On one of the paths they found a decorative bench that she sank down on, not letting him go. He sat next to her and put his arms around her shoulders, simply holding her and letting her cry.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: I don't know, what gets into me in the early teen chapters? Why is it always now that my stories go depressing? Mehhhhhhhhhhhh, I wanna knooooooow.   
For some reason the theory that Soi and the Suzaku people could actually be good friends makes sense to me, and made sense even before I began writing Kadiri. I don't know why, it just makes sense - maybe because she actually does help them in the series. And anyway, it's a new life! So why can't they be friends? ~cue up cheesy yet fun song that's at the end of Lethal Weapon 4~   
And if you want to see just how much of a life I _don't have_, check out http://www.geocities.com/lai_nyan/rebirth.html - that's right, it's back on the web site, complete with mini-profiles to help you keep everyone straight! Ja! 


	15. Chapter 15

  
DISCLAIMER: I have to pack. If I could, I'd fit FY in with all my other stuff, but I can't. And I can't really pack it since it's not mine.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: That entire teasing scene with Gesshin, Tasuki, Reijirou, and Nuriko was an excuse for one thing and one thing only: for Nuriko and Reijirou to punch Gesshin and Tasuki through a wall at the same time ^_^ Seriously, I'd been looking for a way to put that in since _chapter 9_. And I finally got to do it! ~dances with joy~   
I have hereby joined the ranks of FY writers who have had their stories inexplicably not show up on the main page. Along with the greats such as Mouse and Roku-chan, I can now tell of my problems with the system. Last time I posted this story, it stayed up for about 20 hours before disappearing from all sight - you had to search my name to find the story. All in all it was kind of funny. ^_^ Didn't get it as noticed as some chapters, but I've had chapters that only got 2 reviews, so I'm definitely not complaining. But still, I wonder if there's a little green gnome that goes around, pulling random stories off the list ^_^ Wouldn't it be funny if there were? (Update: it got back on somehow. _What_ is up with the system?)   
Everyone who got through despite the problems, you all are the _best_. I'm gonna go down the list now, so bear with me for a minute ^_^   
Bad Mikka-chan! Giving away spoilers in the reviews! I _knew_ it was a bad idea to put up anyone past Yui and Tetsuya ^_^ But I still love ya. That site is www.kabalarians.com and they have an entire _slew_ of names. (They have Karasuki! They have Tomite! They have Hikitsu! They have Tatara, and it fits him eerily well!) They have Kazeko, and it's pretty scary that the name I picked for myself fits me so well, at least by what they say. They have Mikka as well! And I promise I will at least look upon your genuine cuteness at some point when I'm not so busy ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;   
Yeah Lanen, I know it's moving a bit quickly. This is from the days when I was still learning to put a plot together ^^;;; Hadn't quite gotten the hang of time yet. And actually it's in their best interests that it's moving quickly, which sounds weird, and occasionally makes for awkward writing... But I didn't know any way to fix it ^^ Thanks for weighing in! CCs (constructive criticisms) are great!   
Chibigreenwizardmon, I happen to agree with you. I don't believe any of the Seiryu were evil (except for the possible exception of Miboshi, and I wanna hold back judgement on him until I know his past), they just had some really bad *insert Tasuki-type word here* happen to them that messed up their judgement. So that's why I like the idea of _everyone_, and not just the Suzaku, being reincarnated: a second, third, thousandth, whatever chance at life. Actually, out of everyone so far, I'd say _Gesshin_ has the worst life. Ya never know, right? ^_^   
CLAMPraven, of course more're gonna show up! Their lives are in danger! They have to be rescued! ~Dramatic Superhero Music plays~ ~grins~ But first they gotta _find_ them. And remember, one's dead, one's "the enemy", and two have already shown up, but aren't seen much because being five years younger than Reijirou of course they won't operate in the same social sphere. ~grins~ Extra note to Mikka: THE TWINS ARE COMING BACK WHEN THE TWINS ARE COMING BACK! Sheesh! (Actually, I forgot about the twins for a few chapters ^^;) But they ARE coming back!   
Kai-Li, thanks for leaving notice! I am now going to use you as an example ^_^ Everyone, if you want to be notified about updates, be like Kai-Li here and leave your e-mail and what story/stories you'd like to be updated about. I'm not gonna assume that anyone wants an update, so if you don't specifically tell me so I'm not putting you on the list.   
Kryssa, it was just luck - I'd read another review of yours on another story about five minutes before ^^ But I'm still stubbornly pleased with myself. (You wanna know where the Reijie-chan nickname came from? Mouse actually gave it to him ^_^ Seriously. It was amusing enough that I _had_to write it in ^_^) And how did you figure out my weakness? Cherry-flavored candy! Oooh, if I get cherry lollipops, can they be cherry-flavored SqueezePops? Those things are the beeeeeeeeest, they're like lollipops in goo form, and pure sugar... Oh, dangit, now I want one! No! Saving... money... for manga!   
SilverDragoness, insanity is good! ~grins~ I have a lot in my life.   
Lib-chan, as I've said many times - hopefully I'll be able to update. As of right now I don't see why I wouldn't be able to, but I won't know for sure until I get down there. Oh, good time to put in my notice. EVERYONE: I'm probably gonna go back to updating this every other week, because I won't have as much time to proofread and HTML and everything. They keep you busy down there. And updates on the site are temporarily suspended, at least until I work out some way to cram THAT in as well.   
And Ryu-chan, you were just a biiiiiiiiiiiit too early ^_^   
And now, at LAST, on to the chapter ^_^   
  
  


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Reijirou's mind raced as they sat on the bench, Risako still crying softly into his jacket. She couldn't go back to her house in that condition, and he was fairly sure she'd stop him if he tried to take her. His immediate thought was that he should take her to his own home, where he and Nuriko could keep an eye on her, but he dismissed that almost instantly. What with explaining things to his parents and siblings, finding room for her, not to mention their reputations… it would cause more problems than it solved. But where, then, could she possibly go?   
Then he came to his senses, which were still scattered by rage at her attackers, and the answer snapped into place. The Sukunamis! Of course! If she let him, he could tell Taka and Miaka the truth. Although they'd have to think of something to tell Naora-chan, it was the quickest, easiest, and most reasonable solution. He simply needed to call them and explain.   
"Risako…" he said gently, tilting her head so he could see her face, "Risako, listen to me. Do you want to go home?"   
She shook her head violently, not making a sound, her grip on him tightening and burying her face in his chest again.   
"You have to go somewhere… We can't spend all night out here like this."   
"W-Why…" she spoke, so softly he wasn't certain he'd heard it. "Why not?"   
"For one, it will get very cold, very soon. Listen, Risako." He dislodged her death grip on his shoulders and carefully made her sit up straight again. "I'm going to call Taka and Miaka and ask them if you can spend the night at their place. Is that all right?" She hesitated a moment before nodding tentatively. "All right. Come on, let's go find a phone." He slowly stood up, holding her hands in both of his, and waited for her to rise to her feet. "Can you walk?" Again she nodded, but without hesitation. He smiled at her in the near-complete darkness and began leading her back to the park entrance.   
Nuriko was waiting anxiously for them in the car, fidgeting and glancing at the entrance every few moments. When he could finally see them he literally disappeared from sight, only to pop in a second later next to Risako. "Are you all right?" he asked quickly, enveloping her in a tight hug.   
"H-Hai," she whispered, leaning against him as she had Reijirou, looking as if she was trying to control her tears.   
Reijirou spoke in low tones so only Nuriko could hear. "I'm going to call Taka and Miaka, take care of her while I'm gone." Nuriko nodded in agreement and began steering Risako to the car as Reijirou walked off in search of a phone.   
Two stop lights and much self-chiding for not knowing the area around campus better later, he found what he was looking for. He stepped into the little glass box and closed the door, pulling his phone card out of his wallet. He slid the card through the machine and tapped out the Sukunamis' number, wincing when he glanced at his watch and realized it was past eleven. He just hoped he wouldn't wake Naora-chan up… To his surprise only one ring was allowed. "Sukunami residence, and whoever this is better have a _damn_ good reason for calling this late and interrupting my grading."   
"Taka, it's serious, trust me."   
"Reijirou? Is that you?" Taka had significantly less interaction with him over the phone than his wife did.   
"Yeah, but listen, this is a semi-emergency. Can Risako stay at your house tonight?"   
"Semi-emergency, huh?" Reijirou could picture him, rolling up his sleeves and settling back in his chair. "What happened?"   
"Short version: she was attacked by Ashitare's thugs. She's broken, sobbing, can barely talk or walk. She also refuses to go home."   
A shocked silence met him over the staticy phone. He grimly waited for Taka to find his voice again. "Wh… what? Oh gods… Suzaku, this is… bring her here, bring her. I'll be waiting." A sudden click, a buzz, and Reijirou hung up without getting to reply. But an answer wasn't necessary; the most important thing at that moment was getting Risako to Taka's apartment. As soon as possible.   
The trip back to the car took significantly less time than the trip out (having a set destination didn't hurt) and he reached it in just a few minutes. Nuriko was half-sitting in the driver's seat, one arm around Risako's shoulders as the girl slumped with exhaustion in the passenger seat. The seishi looked up when Reijirou's footsteps reached his ears, nodding silently at his counterpart and floating into the backseat. Reijirou slid wordlessly into the seat and put his key in the ignition, grinding the engine a bit out of anxiety and frustration. He gave the poor car a break and put it in gear, holding down the clutch and stepping on the gas.   
They hadn't gotten very far when he felt Risako lean against him. He avoided looking down at her in surprise, keeping his eyes on the nearly deserted road. Instead he freed one hand from the wheel and put it around her shoulders, holding her tight so she wouldn't fall over. When he looked down at the next red light, she was sound asleep on his shoulder.   
"The poor girl…" Nuriko whispered. "I can vaguely remember Miaka being like that… It must have been horrible."   
Reijirou nodded grimly. "Must have been."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Taka answered Nuriko's intense pounding quickly, ushering them inside. Reijirou turned carefully to avoid hitting Risako's head on the doorframe and slid inside, Nuriko floating after him. "Do you have a guest room, Taka?"   
The sensei nodded. "Yeah, follow me." Taka led Reijirou, carrying the sleeping Risako, down the hall to the last door on the right. He reached inside and flipped a switch, and the room was filled with light from a half-burned out bulb. "Really need to change that… Just put her down there, I'll see if Miaka can lend her a night shirt or something."   
"Where _is_ Miaka, anyway?" Nuriko asked.   
"I think she's digging through her closet, the phone call earlier woke her up."   
Reijirou flinched, but it had been a necessary evil. "Sorry about that, there was just nowhere else to take her."   
"No, we're glad to help. After all that…" He shook his head and ran his fingers impatiently through his hair. "If it was anything like what Miaka went through, she must be going through hell."   
"I think she is." Reijirou said quietly.   
The room was silent for a moment, only the slight whirring of the overhead fan breaking the air. Taka glanced at the girl on the bed one more time, then sighed. "I'll go check on Miaka, I want the full story when I come back." He walked out the door, muttering under his breath. Nuriko could swear he heard something resembling "…make those bastards pay…" pass his lips.   
"Ne, Reijirou," he asked idly.   
"What is it?"   
"What're we going to do?"   
Reijirou's eyes narrowed to nearly invisible slits. His hand clenched into a tight fist as he watched the sleeping girl, unbidden images of her being brutalized by her attackers passing before his eyes. "We make them pay." His voice was low, almost a growl, startling the seishi.   
"Ne, Reijirou, calm down." Nuriko grabbed Reijirou's hand and effortlessly pried the fingers open. "Look, you want revenge, and it's perfectly understandable. But _they're not here now_ and losing your head isn't going to help us any." Nuriko placed his hands on Reijirou's shoulders and turned the slightly taller boy to face him. "So just _calm down_ and help me think this through."   
A heavy footstep drew their attention to the door. "Miaka'll be here in a moment with the nightgown, she's talking to Naora-chan now." Taka watched them steadily and soberly. "She woke up with the commotion, but it'll be all right. Why don't you two go sit down in the living room?"   
"No." Reijirou pushed Nuriko's hands off his shoulders and sat on the bed next to Risako. "I'm not moving."   
Nuriko and Taka stared at him for a moment, faces blank. "Well…" Taka said, "if you're sure about that…"   
"I am."   
Nuriko nodded silently, turned and left the room, drifting back down the hall. Taka followed seconds later, just as quiet, closing the door behind him.   
The whir of the fan was nearly driving him crazy, but he refused to budge. The light threw strange shadows onto her face, making her look pale and washed out and flushed at the same time. Her sleep, so peaceful before, was being broken as she started to move a little, beginning to toss and turn, her face forming into nearly torturous expressions. The nightmares were clearly coming, and any moment he expected her to start crying out.   
"Risako…" Reijirou hesitantly reached out, then steeled his nerves and touched his hand to her cheek. She'd kill him if he ever did this while she was awake… but now he was shocked to see she quieted under his touch. Her breathing returned to a normal rate, her arms tucked themselves around her body, and she turned on her side, curling up slightly. She looked so vulnerable, so completely unlike the Risako he'd gotten to know over the past week, and he had no idea what to do. "I want to help you… Please tell me how."   
"It's not as simple as it sounds, you know." Reijirou's head snapped up to see Miaka in the doorway, something draped over her arm and a solemn expression on her face. He hadn't even heard her open the door. "You think she'll just wake up and it will be fine? You think she can tell you how to help her? You think you _can_ help her?"   
"Are you saying I can't?"   
"I'm saying that there's nothing simple about this." She walked into the room and draped the nightgown over the back of the room's solitary chair, claiming a seat next to Reijirou and taking his hand in hers. "Much as it hurts to think about it, I went through what she did. More than once. It's never easy, there _is_ no simple solution." Reijirou kept quiet. This topic was clearly bringing up painful memories for Miaka, but she made herself push on with a force that amazed him. "The worst was when I thought it really happened. With Nakago. I pushed myself away from everyone, especially Tamahome. I didn't think I could be with him any more. Only Amiboshi's, and yes, even Soi's, compassion saved us. And probably saved my life as well. She won't get over this that easily. And you won't be able to help her until she decides she needs your help."   
"But… But… But she already decided!" he blurted out, unable to stop himself.   
Miaka looked sharply at him, her stare penetrating into his mind. "Has she? She called _you,_ yes, which is a large step in the right direction. But she was also desperate. She'll be scared to trust almost any male after this, as I was. But…" Her eyes softened, and she squeezed his hand. "Your heart is in the right place. This'll drive you crazy, but all you can do is wait for her. She'll come to you, if she wants to."   
He sighed heavily and rubbed his face with his free hand. "How long will it take? How long will she be that way?"   
"I honestly don't know… the conditions are so unusual, and she's normally a strong girl. But the fact it broke her this much means it was probably a lot worse than we think it was. Maybe the 'mission' will bring her back to herself, she might see it as her chance to get revenge." Miaka shrugged. "There's really no way to tell." Reijirou sighed again, and Miaka pulled him into a hug. "She'll get better. She's too stubborn NOT to. Besides," she gave a slight grin. "I'll be VERY upset if she doesn't."   
He let himself crack a smile at her tone of voice, then glanced once more at Risako. "Do you think she'd mind if I stayed here awhile?"   
"She probably would if you were in here when her were clothes off. Aaaahhh, ecchi!" She whapped him upside the head as he dropped the psychopathic grin he'd been making and laughed. "Out, out! Or I _throw_ you out and into the wall!" She gave him a hard, friendly push in the direction of the door, and he stumbled that way, getting his feet under him and catching himself on the frame. "And if Naora-chan asks, just say that Risako-san felt sick and came here to rest. That's what we told her." Reijirou nodded and toppled out the door, closing it behind him and sitting down to wait until he could get in again.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The sunlight filtering through the half-closed blinds made Reijirou blink his eyes open the next morning. The walls seemed much too high, and they were the wrong color. The windows were in the wrong place. And the bed had gotten _very_ uncomfortable. He shook his head slightly to try and clear away the last fog of sleep and the answers to all his questions became very apparent.   
He was sprawled on the floor, still in the clothes he'd been wearing the day before, of Taka and Miaka's guestroom. There was a pillow under his head and a blanket over his body that he had no recollection of, and he finally decided that Miaka had tried to make him more comfortable. His shoes had also been removed and placed out of the way. He pushed himself up into a more or less sitting position and looked around for a clock.   
It was pretty early, but he had the feeling he wouldn't get back to sleep again. Reijirou stood slowly, stretching his cramped muscles, working a kink out of his neck.   
Risako was still asleep in the bed, covers pulled up almost over her head and twisted around her body. He wondered how he'd slept through her thrashing as he gently dislodged the blankets and sheets from their stranglehold and laid them straight again. Her face was quiet at last, her breathing soft and even. Whatever nightmares had come to her in the night had left, chased away by the morning's light.   
He couldn't resist stroking her long, thick hair, gripping a handful of it tightly as the brutal images his imagination had dreamed up of her and her attackers once again presented themselves to him. He knew he'd get revenge, just to see her smile again.   
But now she needed rest and peace more than vengeance. He shoved his makeshift bedding into a corner, where she wouldn't trip over it when she got out of bed, gathered his shoes, and left the room, quietly closing the door to not break her sleep. He heard muted voices down the hall in the direction of the kitchen, and paused outside the guestroom to try and get his hair to lie somewhat flatter before appearing in public, shaking out his clothes to chase away the wrinkles they'd acquired overnight.   
THUD.   
A small ballistic missile hit him in the bottom of the legs, knocking him off balance and nearly making him crash headfirst into the wall. He quickly braced himself against the wall with both hands, holding himself up by strength alone.   
Wrapped around his knees was a petite head of light brown hair, large light brown eyes smiling happily up at him. For once, he felt like a giant instead of one of the shortest guys in school. "Reijirou-san!"   
He grinned. "Hello, Naora-chan." He got enough balance to hold himself up for a few seconds, then bent over and pried her arms off his legs. He quickly picked her up to stop any protests, settling her on his hip as he'd seen Miaka do several times by now, supporting her behind her back as she wrapped tiny arms around his chest. "I see _you're_ nice and awake this morning. Who all's in the kitchen?" He nodded in the general direction of the object of his inquiry, distinctly hearing more than one female voice and at least three male.   
"We have lots of visitors today! Mama and Papa and Uncle Keisuke and Uncle Tetsuya and Auntie Yui are all here! And so are you and Risako-san!" She beamed at him, and he laughed, unable to resist her innocent charms. "But you and Risako-san were here _all night_," she said with perfect seriousness. "No one else was but you and Mama and Papa and me! Are you and Risako-san married, Reijirou-san?"   
Reijirou stopped dead in his tracks, feeling all color rush from his face as he stared at the girl he held. "Wh-What did you just say?"   
"Are you and Risako-san married, Reijirou-san? You spent the night in the same room, just like Mama and Papa do and Uncle Tetsuya and Auntie Yui do also! And I think you like her, so are you married?" Her expression was one of questioning innocence, but even so the color returned to his face in a flood. He could feel himself turning red as a tomato. Really quickly too.   
"No, we're not married," he said a bit too quickly. "We're good friends. There's a _big_ difference."   
Naora giggled and latched onto him tighter. "You're my friend, too!"   
He sighed with relief and vowed to wipe his face later at the avoidance of that subject. "You said your Aunt Yui was here? And Uncle Tetsuya? Can I meet them?"   
"Hai!" she sang out happily. "They're in the kitchen! Let's run, that's fun!" He obligingly broke into a jog, hampered little by the giggling figure he was carrying.   
They thudded onto the small linoleum floor and he quickly set her down. "Morning. Do we have any coffee here?"   
Miaka nodded and pointed. "Pot's next to the refrigerator, mugs in the cabinet above. Help yourself, we have cream, sugar, and milk out." The miniature table was littered with the milk jug and empty cream packets, and a half-full bowl of sugar with a little serving spoon was next to the pot itself. He ignored the gaping stares of the two people new to him until he fetched himself a large mug of straight, black coffee. He had a feeling he'd need the caffeine.   
Chairs from other rooms had been dragged in to make enough room for everyone to sit, giving the accommodations a rather cramped but homey feel. Miaka and Taka sat next to each other facing the door, where they could see anyone coming, or skipping out as Naora currently was. Reijirou quickly prayed she wasn't going to try and wake Risako as he took the empty seat between Miaka and Keisuke, nodding at the older man before taking a long drink of coffee that shocked his system awake enough to think. He set the mug down and took his first look at the new arrivals.   
The woman was a bit taller than Miaka, though still shorter than he himself, with somewhat-long blonde hair that reached to her shoulder blades and intelligent blue eyes. Her hair was done up in a French braid and she wore a simple business suit, which made her appear calm, professional, and in control. But her eyes also held a hint of good humor and tolerance, if one ignored the completely shocked expression on her face at the moment. The man was wearing the same expression and looked to be around Keisuke's age, a little older than Taka. In contrast to his wife, he was wearing faded blue jeans and a beat up, comfortable looking leather jacket about the same color as his hair. A pair of aviator's sunglasses blocked his eyes, but his mouth was wide open in slack-jawed surprise. They were both staring straight at him, watching every move he made.   
Reijirou fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair, feeling rather like a sideshow freak people paid to look at in circuses. "What? Do I have something on my face? Did I go half-bald and not realize it?"   
The man recovered a bit quicker than the woman, hurriedly shaking his head. "No no no no no," he stuttered in a friendly voice, "but you look so much like… like…"   
"Like him." The woman found her own voice and pointed at the door, where Nuriko was just drifting through.   
He gave everyone a sunny smile, way too chipper that early in the morning. "Did they not believe you, Miaka?"   
"We believed, we believed. I just didn't realize how… similar you would be." The woman - Yui - said, somewhat in awe. "Even after Taka… Gahhh, this is strange, talking to two of you at once!"   
Reijirou grinned wickedly. "Wait 'til you see Katai and Shirai with Amiboshi and Suboshi, THAT'S gonna be hard."   
"I don't even want to think about it," Yui muttered, letting her head fall to the table with a dull thunk. "Maybe we should make them get tattoos to tell them apart…"   
"I don't think their parents would let you do that to them, dear." Tetsuya patted his wife's hand soothingly, then glanced up at Taka. Even with his eyes hidden it was clear he was being very serious. "Do you think Naora-chan will come back soon?"   
Taka quickly shook his head, blue hair flying about. "Iya, we asked her if she wouldn't mind playing in her room while discussed 'boring, adult stuff.' That turned her off pretty quickly. And if it doesn't work, we can always throw her Keisuke."   
Keisuke shot his brother-in-law a good-natured glare, then huffed and pretended to ignore him. "Reijirou, this is Kajiwara Tetsuya and Yui. Guys, this is Enomoto Reijirou. Hopefully you can remember all that." He grinned and settled back in his chair as Tetsuya clearly shot him a look.   
Yui ignored Keisuke and reached over the table to shake Reijirou's hand. "So you're the one who got all this kicked off again. Well, can't say it's for a bad cause. Can we take some time and go over what we know, so Tetsuya and I are up to speed?"   
Reijirou, Miaka, and Taka shared a glance, then all began talking at once. They immediately shut up and waited for the collision of words to die down, then the Sukunamis nodded at Reijirou to begin.   
He launched into the story, trying to trim it to the essentials and leave out some things, but he kept getting confused and having to backtrack to explain things, so eventually he gave up and just talked. He began with how he was late to Taka's class and how Taka had called him "Nuriko" when he'd first seen him, the mugging where they'd met Miaka, and everything since then. Nuriko, Miaka, Taka, and even Keisuke once or twice interrupted to add in some other piece of the puzzle, supporting his story with their facts. He and Nuriko settled down into a one-talked-while-the-other-caught-his-breath rhythm at about the point where Reijirou had been attacked. Yui and Tetsuya listened intently, he with an unreadable expression, Yui's face growing grimmer and grimmer, her hands clutching her mug tighter as they went on. She gave an involuntary cry at the description of his attacker and what had happened to him, and Tetsuya put a comforting arm around her shoulder, leaving it there after she'd composed herself.   
A soft bump reached his ears as Reijirou was describing Mitsukake's summoning, and he turned to see Risako, still wearing Miaka's night gown, leaning in the doorway. She smiled wanly at them, saying softly "Hello everyone."   
Reijirou shot a glance at the rest of the people at the table, then shoved his chair back with some difficulty as it got caught on Keisuke's, crossing to Risako and gently pulling her around the corner and into the hallway. "Are you okay? How do you feel?" He tried to keep his voice down, trying to keep off the radar of the professional eavesdroppers in the next room.   
She smiled a little, but crookedly, ironically. "Want me to be blunt?"   
He nodded.   
"I feel like shit," she stated, completely serious. "I feel tired and worn out and like I'm going to cry at any second. Does that answer your question?"   
He grimaced. "All too well." He crossed his arms over his chest, scuffing one sneaker along the floor. He didn't know how to deal with her now. Her cheerful disposition was nearly gone, replaced by something cynical and slightly bitter. It was worse than the crying the night before, at least then he'd been able to hold her, comfort her. Now she looked as if she would rip him open before he could try, if she didn't collapse first. "Risako…"   
She looked up at him, then edged by and into the living room, sinking onto one end of the couch and putting her hand to her forehead. "Do you know if they have any aspirin? Oh, I should call my parents…" Her voice dwindled off as she glanced at the phone, clearly not looking forward to that call.   
He hesitantly sat at the other end of the couch, barely noticing as Yui's arm came out of the kitchen and snaked the door shut. He did, however, hear her tone of voice as she reprimanded several someones for trying to pry into business that definitely wasn't theirs. He tried to ignore it, however, concentrating on the girl near him. "Risako, I…" She simply watched him, face betraying no emotion aside from fatigue.   
He sighed heavily. No matter how much he'd denied it the night before, told himself she'd already accepted him, Miaka had been right. The sheer trauma of the incident had burned its way onto her heart, and she wasn't ready to trust anyone, even a woman. "I just… hell, I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do," he finished up, mentally kicking himself for sounding like a moron.   
"No, can't think of anything. Do you think the aspirin would be in the kitchen or bathroom?"   
He gave up. It was worthless trying with her in this state. Better to let her calm down first, then try again. "I don't know, I'll go ask." He stood up and walked quickly to the door, his steps short and unnatural. The atmosphere of the room was weighing down on him.   
"-you and Tetsuya gone so long, Yui-chan?" Miaka was saying as he stepped in the room. "It took so long for you to get back to me!"   
Yui looked at Tetsuya with an embarrassed, sheepish smile on her face, and he took her hand and grinned. "I surprised her. I bought plane tickets for our anniversary. We had a second honeymoon, with no advance notice. Barely found someone to water the plants and bring in the mail while we were away."   
"Awwww, how kawaii!" Reijirou couldn't help smiling at Miaka's expression and Tetsuya and Yui's lovey-dovey looks. "That's a great present Tetsuya, I'm sure you had a great time." If it was possible, the Kajiwaras' faces got even redder.   
Reijirou cleared his throat to help them avoid further embarrassment, and Yui shot him a grateful look. "Risako wants to know where you keep the aspirin, I think she has a headache."   
Miaka's mobile face lost the genki look, her eyes becoming slightly troubled and a small, worried frown creasing her mouth. "How is she?"   
Reijirou groaned lowly in frustration and buried his head in his hands. "Just like you said. She won't talk to me now, I can't tell anything from her expression, she's not _Risako_ anymore!" He smacked the wall hard with his fist, not noticing the small dent he made and the little plaster flurry that exploded from the site.   
Taka frowned as well, getting up and walking slowly over to peer into Reijirou's face as well as he could. Reijirou didn't care anymore, Risako's new attitude took the life out of him, made him feel helpless and listless, wondering why it even mattered any more. He didn't lift his gaze from the ground as Taka frowned at the top of his head. "Reijirou, you and I are having a long talk, very soon."   
"What the hell good will that do me?" Reijirou muttered cynically.   
"Idiot. I've _been_ there, remember?" Taka whispered fiercely into his ear, tapping him hard on the head for good measure. "I might be able to clarify a few things."   
Yui cleared her throat rather loudly. "Umm, Miaka, Taka, you should probably know that you're going to have another visitor today." She glanced at the microwave clock. "Very soon, in fact. So you might want to tell Risako-san to move if she doesn't like being seen in night wear."   
"Another visitor? Who?" Miaka queried, slipping out of her seat to grab the aspirin from one of the cabinets. "And why didn't I know about this before?"   
"She called out of the blue this morning, and with that case later today the only time I could see her was when I with you. And I knew you wouldn't mind seeing her either."   
"Again, who?" She filled a glass with water from the tap, then pressed both into Reijirou's hands. "Here, take these to Risako." She began ushering him out of the kitchen as Yui was talking.   
"Morin, she's finally back in town. She hasn't been home since she left for college up north, and she wanted to see her old friends."   
"Oh, Morin-chan!" Miaka paused in ushering to grin and clap her hands. "It'll be just like old times!"   
"She also said she had a surprise for us-" The closing door cut off Yui's next words.   
Reijirou shook his head and scuffed across the living room again in Risako's direction, presenting her with the aspirin and the water. She popped the cap and shook out two pills, then swallowed them quickly. "Thanks." Her face was still blank of all emotion, and Reijirou had to control an urge to shake her, hit her, do _something_ to snap her out of that place she'd gone to where she wasn't herself.   
He calmed himself down, taking a deep breath. "Yui says someone else is coming over, sounds like one of their old school friends. You might want to move if you don't want to be seen that way." Her direct look at him after he said that made him flush red again; she probably wouldn't mind anyone seeing her in a nightgown if she had no objections to _him_. Still, Reijirou himself was indignant with the thought of anyone else seeing her… He squashed that thought as the doorbell rang. "Last chance."   
Risako simply shook her head, not moving from her position on the couch, as Miaka flew out of the kitchen, Yui hot on her heels, and past them for the door. She yanked it open, breathing slightly heavily and grinning widely. "Morin-chan!"   
"Miaka-chan!" Another excited young woman stepped inside and gave Miaka a large hug, her dark blue hair waving behind her in a long braid. "And Yui-chan too!" Morin hugged Yui also, clearly excited at seeing her friends after such a long time.   
"God Morin, you look fabulous!" Yui cried after they broke apart, taking her hand and twirling her around like a dancer.   
Morin grinned, a mischevious twinkle in her eye. "Well being away from Miaka the Human Eating Machine helped I think. Oh, it's been too long!" She stepped forward to hug Miaka again. Miaka didn't seem to mind the slight tease.   
"_Yes it has!_ You barely called and never wrote, we thought you had forgotten about us!" Miaka pouted, looking surprisingly like she did in some of the photos scattered around the Sukunami apartment, from when she was in middle school and high school. Yui gazed directly at Morin, the teasing glint in her eye, but trying to keep a stern, serious look on her face.   
Morin grinned sheepishly, quelling under her friends' looks. "Well, actually, I got really busy with classes and… things, and I never had the time to write postcards to my mother, let alone anyone else."   
"Oh? What's so important that you forget your friends?" Yui mock-sniffed.   
"A couple things. I got a diploma in graphic arts and advertising, for one thing, which takes a lot of effort."   
_Dad, want me to try and do some recruiting?_ Reijirou thought ironically.   
"Oh yeah? What else?"   
"Well, that's the surprise I told you about." She stepped backwards out of the door and made a gesture that Reijirou couldn't see from his vantage point. He hoped he wasn't intruding on some private reunion by simply being in the room, but he'd draw more attention to himself if he left than if he just kept silent. Morin entered the door again, a joyful grin on her face as she held up her left hand. Reijirou could vaguely see something glinting yellowish on her finger, but whatever it was sent Miaka and Yui into joyful squeals and a fresh round of hugging.   
"Morin, I'm so happy for you!" Yui said. "What's his name? What's he like?"   
Morin laughed and extracted herself from her friends' well-meaning congratulations. "I'm _trying_ to tell you he's here now. He wants to meet you after hearing so much about you."   
"Ahhh! Show him in, show him in!" Miaka glanced around, seemed to notice Reijirou and Risako again, and dismiss them out-of-hand.   
"Hokusai! Don't worry, they won't tear you to pieces, they've always been like this." Morin grinned at her friends startled protests, then took the hand of the tall man that stepped through the door. "Yui-chan, Miaka-chan, this is Obinata Hokusai."   
He grinned shyly, looking slightly overwhelmed, which Reijirou could in no way blame him for. He looked about as tall as Gesshin, much more thinly built but more along Reijirou's lines. His hair was slightly long and pulled back into a tight ponytail, with a bit of bangs in front that spilled into his dark brown eyes. He was dressed pretty casually, and had a friendly air about him. "Nice to meet you, Yui-san, Miaka-san." Yui greeted him enthusiastically as Reijirou noticed the gaping expression on Miaka's face.   
Then it clicked. _Oh shit. HIM TOO!_   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Heh heh heh heh heh... Cliiiiiiiiiiiffhanger.   
I think I owe a short explanation about Morin. A few chapters ago I asked which of Miaka and Yui's friends was Morin and which was Fuu because I wanted to keep it straight and would have gone with general opinion. No one answered, so I was left to my own devices. Even the great Tasuki no Miko (who I worship) only identifies them as Girl#1 and Girl#2, so I just went with my original assumption - which is, that Morin is the shorter one, with blue hair, kind of chubby, which is why Yui makes the "you look fabulous!" comment (Morin slimmed down). If anyone wants to disagree with me on which is which, tough. 'Tis my story, I got no answer to my question, so this is the way things are.   
And on that note, I maybe-leave you all for a few weeks. One, at least, but that's nothing new, but just in case... I love each and every one of you. I'll try my best to upload, and I'd be so grateful to get e-mails! Something to keep me in touch with the realm of FY obsession! I love everyone, and I'll see ya at my next posting... whenever that is. 


	16. Chapter 16

  
DISCLAIMER: I now own Mr. Mustache (long story). I do not own FY.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Woot! I am back to update peeps! I just hope people haven't forgotten this story ^^;;;;   
Well, I tried to be mysterious at the end of last chapter, but I shoulda known that it wasn't that hard to figure out (with only four left, there's only so many possibilities). Congrats! You all did well! Now take some Ritalin before you freak out into an early grave! They don't want to scare the poor boy out of his wits!   
Lib-chan, I don't do it on purpose (athough I do cackle in evil glee when I see the results)! The stories just get written they way they get written, I barely have any say in the process! The characters possess my brain and fingers and make them type what THEY want to happen! Or, well, what's in-character for them. More than once I've had something planned in my head only to get to that part and write something completely different - because it wasn't in-character. What's all this have to do with anything, you wonder? So do I ^_^ I think what I mean is there will/won't be romance when the story calls for it, and only if it fits the characters. And please don't kill me for it! ~hides in a bomb shelter~   
Mikka-chan, I hereby and forthwith ignore your obsession with "where are the twins" ^_~   
CLAMPraven, thanks for saying Risako is a good character! It means a lot to me, I've grown very attached to her over the past year ^_^   
~gives CLAMP, Elwing, Mikka, Kryssa, Stormlight, and Draconsis Milano cookies for guessing correctly! Also gives Ice-Goddess Goldfish crackers for most original guess~   
Okay, I have a poll for all of you. For once, my readers get to influence my story! (Although you won't see the results for awhile ^^;;; Sorry!) Should there be shoving-in-the-closet action later on ("later on" meaning 'round chapter 25)? The "shovers" would most likely be Gesshin and Kadiri, and the "shovees" would be Reijirou and Risako. Now I make no guarantees as to what would happen once they're actually _in_ the closet, or if anything would at all, but... Ahh well, I feel like being devious and wanna see what you think! ^_^   
I love you all! ~glomps and lets them read~   
  


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Obinata Hokusai, for all intents and purposes, didn't _look_ like he'd been an over-cheerful wandering monk in a past life. But, then again, Reijirou would never suspect that his past life had lived as a woman for half his life just by looking at himself. In fact, Obinata Hokusai didn't look much like the wandering monk at all. He had both eyes, for one thing, and of course there was no mask. His bangs flopped into his face like a normal person's, not sticking in every direction like wacky pipe cleaners.   
But his hair was still the same color, and his build was exactly like the monk's. Hokusai also had the same friendly, relaxed air about him. There was no way he _couldn't_ be Chichiri.   
Reijirou wondered for point seven seconds exactly _how_ he knew all this, since _he_ hadn't actually known the monk, but pushed that aside as Miaka wandered dazedly over to him. Yui was still chattering excitedly with Hokusai and Morin, and from the look on her face Risako hadn't figured it out yet. She would soon though, she wasn't dumb. But the question was would she go on with the hunt?   
"Tell me I'm dreaming," Miaka whispered raggedly to Reijirou. "Tell me Chichiri did _not_ just walk through that door married to one of my friends."   
Reijirou gave her a helpless look. "I'd like to, but…"   
Miaka groaned. "Oh good lord," she muttered. "They keep popping up all over! And now _one of my best friends has married one of my seishi!_"   
"Look, I can't really do anything about tha… Oh no." Reijirou quickly caught Miaka as she fell in a shocked faint.   
"Is Miaka-san all right?" Hokusai asked, crossing over to inspect her worriedly. "She seemed fine when we came in…"   
_People dropping left and right here, and for some pretty stupid reasons too._ Reijirou rolled his eyes in exasperation and picked up Miaka easily. "TAKA! Taka, come here, _now!_"   
"Oh no… Why this time?" Yui came up next to Hokusai, Morin right behind her, peering curiously over the blonde woman's shoulder.   
"I'll explain later. _Taka! I'm not kidding when I say now!_"   
The door to the kitchen swung open again and Taka emerged, grumbling. "What _now_, we were…" He stopped moving forward as he saw his wife and Reijirou's "take her or prepare to suffer the consequences" look. Reijirou knew a little too well what Miaka did to guys when she woke up suddenly, even if they _had_ only been helping her. He _really_ didn't want to end up with gigantic handprints covering his face, or his teeth falling out from one of her punches. "I see. Here, let me have her." Taka held out his arms to take his wife and Reijirou gratefully dropped her into them, then watched as Taka carried her to their bedroom, kicking open the door and walking inside. He didn't once catch a glimpse of Hokusai, which Reijirou could only be thankful for. They didn't need TWO people freaking out over Chichiri's rather sudden appearance.   
A door not as far along the corridor opened and a small, light-brown head popped out. "What's the yelling about?" Naora hopped outside her door and looked at her parents' room curiously, then ran on short legs in the other direction, towards the gathering in the main room. "Reijirou-san, why were you yelling?" she asked, attaching herself to his legs again.   
Once more that morning he pried her off and picked her up, stroking her hair to calm her. She was worried now, her large eyes said plainly. "It's all right, your mother just needed to… lie down for a little. She's fine." He scrambled for something to keep her occupied while they dealt with Miaka and Chichiri-incarnate, then widened his eyes as if he'd just had a sudden idea. "Ne, Naora-chan, your Uncle Keisuke said earlier he'd love to go for a walk with you. Do you want to do it now?"   
"Wai!" she cheered, struggling to climb out of his arms. He didn't let her go, but carried her into the kitchen. "Uncle Keisuke, let's go for the walk you said you wanted to go on!" she chirruped cheerfully.   
Keisuke started to open his mouth, no doubt to protest that he had no idea what walk… but immediately closed it as he saw the very Nuriko-like death glare Reijirou was shooting at him. Reijirou mouthed _I'll explain later, just get her out of here_ at the older man over Naora-chan's head, and Keisuke nodded slightly at him before pushing back his chair and rising to his feet. "Of course, Naora-chan! Come on, let's get your coat and then we can leave."   
"Hai! Down pwease," she chirped at Reijirou, who complied. She barely had both feet on the floor before sprinting through the door again. Reijirou and Keisuke heard the closet door crash open, and both shook their heads.   
"She's got wayyyyy too much energy this early," Reijirou muttered. "Sorry about this, but Chichiri just walked through the door and Miaka fainted."   
"_What?!_" Keisuke barely remembered to keep his voice down to a fierce whisper. "_Chichiri's_ here?!"   
Reijirou nodded. "Yeah. His name's Obinata Hokusai, he's married to that friend of Miaka and Yui that came to visit. Only Miaka and I recognized him, don't act like you know anything, if you can." He ducked a playful swat at his head. "Good luck."   
"Yeah, I'm gonna need it with that kid. Oh well, she could be a lot worse I guess." Keisuke jokingly saluted and grabbed his jacket from where it was draped over the counter, shrugging into it before taking a deep breath and stepping onto the battlefield.   
The kitchen was silent until the front door clicked loudly closed. "Moooouuuuu… _Another_ one," Nuriko groaned. The seishi was sitting in one of the chairs scattered around the table and now mostly abandoned, except for him and Tetsuya, who watched with what was probably a neutral expression. Nuriko's head fell forward to thunk against the table in a perfect imitation of Yui earlier, except this time the motion was made much stranger by the semi-transparent nature of the mover. "Another one… Another one… How many more do we have _left_ then?" Nuriko didn't raise his head, but his tone became much more optimistic at the thought that their search, for the Suzaku at least, was almost over.   
"Let's see… We've got us, Dr. Seo and Mitsukake, Gesshin and Tasuki, Suezo, Hokusai, and Taka," Reijirou counted on his fingers. "So, six down, one to go. Chiriko. And then we've got to find the rest of the Seiryu, we've got Akihiko, Kadiri, Katai, Shuurai, and…" he paused a moment with the thumb of his left hand still extended, refusing to fold. But there was no getting around the fact that one was already dead, as much as he refused to acknowledge it. He physically reached over with his right hand and folded his thumb down, a task that took a surprising amount of willpower. "And Adam. So that leaves whoever Tomo is and Miboshi."   
"Just three? We're doing better than I thought." Nuriko finally picked his head up and sat upright for a second before slouching in the chair. "Why did Miaka faint? She should know by now to expect anyone, any_where_."   
"You know Miaka," Tetsuya spoke up for the first time, standing calmly and walking around the table to the cupboard above the sink. "She always has to be dramatic." He pulled open the little door and looked around inside, then dug his hand into the back corner and came out with a small bottle of smelling salts. "Here, take these to Taka, I'm gonna go fill Yui in and help her corral the company. Is Risako-san still out there?" Tetsuya's mouth narrowed as Reijirou nodded dismally. "I'd say you two'd better get her out of here. There's going to be a lot going on for awhile, and she… doesn't seem up to it."   
"If you're trying to say she's sullen and moody and not fit to be seen in public you can say it straight, she's all of those things." Reijirou's voice was flat and blunt. "Pain… I'd understand, but being angry at _everyone?_ Something's wrong with that, especially with her."   
Tetsuya chuckled lightly and tossed Reijirou the bottle, which he easily caught. "I _was_ trying to be diplomatic, but since you said it… You're right. She needs to go home, be in familiar surroundings. Look on the bright side, at least she didn't say she didn't want to see you anymore."   
"Why does everyone assume we're a couple? We're _not_, we're just friends." Reijirou huffed with annoyance, then stalked out of the room and down the hall, hearing Tetsuya's laughter from the kitchen.   
He pushed open the door of Miaka and Taka's bedroom without bothering to knock. Taka was standing next to the bed, looking crossly down at his wife. The room didn't have much personality: a monotone shade of paint on the walls, a couple of lamps, two dressers, a closet, and two bedside tables. But every flat surface seemed to be covered with photographs in discount store frames. There were several pictures of the Sukunami family, more of Naora by herself from birth to her last birthday, of friends and family in all seasons and places. On the table next to Taka there was a very large picture of the Sukunamis on their wedding day, posing in front of the church in their formal finery, smiling at each other instead of the camera. The Miaka in the picture looked radiant, an angel descended to Earth in her flowing white, but the Miaka on the bed… definitely was not.   
Reijirou stifled laughter as Taka looked at him and said in an irritated moan, "Why me?"   
He grinned outright and tossed him the little white bottle, which Taka snatched out of midair. "Hey, you picked it sensei, don't come crying to me." At times it was very hard to remember that the blue-haired man was really his teacher. Probably something having to do with the book and all… "Hey, Taka."   
"Yeah?" It was one of those stupid childproof caps, and it had gotten stuck, and he was struggling with it, much to Reijirou's amusement.   
"When are we going to call Tamahome? I mean, since you already know about the book and all, there's no reason to put it off."   
"There's also no need to call him." Taka straightened up from the Battle of the Smelling Salts and a bright red light caught Reijirou full in the eyes. He threw up a hand to shield them and blinked rapidly, trying to disperse the after images dancing playfully over his retinas. When he could at least half see again he looked at Taka, and his jaw dropped.   
Glowing eerily neon red over the bottle of smelling salts Taka held extended to him was the kanji "Oni". Ogre. Tamahome's mark. And it was on Taka's forehead! "Can you open this? It never likes me."   
Reijirou took it but continued to stare at his teacher. "What? This?" Taka inquired casually. "You know what this is. I repeat, there's no reason to call him." He shrugged and the light died slowly, leaving his forehead blank again. "Now get that open before she goes comatose."   
His tone was very teacher-y, and Reijirou quickly and easily popped the cap, making Taka growl and glare at the bottle. He gave it back to the older man, trying to contain the flood of ideas in his mind and form them into something even slightly resembling an intelligent query. "How… How…"   
"How did this happen?" Reijirou nodded, too stunned to speak. Taka shrugged. "At the end of the whole memory jewels escapade, I took Tamahome into myself. We became one person. And I guess he's still here, but I'm him and he's me. Whew," Taka gasped, holding the bottle away from his nose. "That's gonna wake the dead." He held it under his wife's nose. "Hopefully it'll wake Miaka too."   
Reijirou was tempted to throw open the window to let out the overpowering stench, but after a second Miaka's eyelids slowly rose, and she blinked once, twice, bringing the world into focus. Then she remembered.   
"HE'S GOT BOTH EYES!" she shrieked, sitting bolt upright and grabbing Taka's collar, yanking him down to look frantically at him. Taka couldn't keep hold of the bottle and it went flying into the corner, where Reijirou chased after it with the cap. "He's got both eyes! And hair that behaves the law of gravity!"   
Taka threw a scared, freaked-out, tortured look over his hunched shoulder at Reijirou. "Wh-What's she talking about?"   
"Oh, didn't you notice?" Reijirou grinned impishly and tossed the now-capped bottle up and down in his hand, talking casually and leaning against the wall. "Chichiri's out there right now."   
"_Chichiri?!_"   
"Yep!"   
"Suzaku… How'd THIS happen? Is he a traveling salesman or something? Miaka, dear, please let me go." His wife sheepishly complied with the request and moved so her legs were dangling over the side of the bed. Taka sat next to her, looking between the two. "From the top, please."   
Reijirou nodded at Miaka. "Well…" she began, trying to find the best way to phrase it, "remember that Yui-chan said we'd be having another visitor today? Our friend Morin, to be exact."   
"Yeah, and I remember the way you two tore out of the kitchen when the doorbell rang as well."   
She ignored his smart comment. "Well, she showed up, and you know we haven't really heard from her in awhile. So we didn't know what was going on with her, other than that she was going for her degree and all… And apparently she'd been even more busy than we'd thought."   
"Did she give _birth_ to him or something?!"   
"NO!" Miaka smacked him in the shoulder, hard, nearly making him fall off the bed. "You idiot! Turns out she MARRIED him! Sheesh. Men."   
"Owwww…" Taka rubbed his poor abused shoulder and gave her a Look. "So what you're saying is that you fainted because you saw a man you knew in a past life and now he's slightly different and got married to your friend and turned up unexpectedly at our apartment door and Tetsuya and Yui are now playing the hosts in _our_ home?"   
"Yep."   
"Suzaku…"   
"Umm…" Reijirou broke in. Two pairs of eyes turned to regard him, both with a "what _now?_" look. "I'm gonna take Risako home now, her parents are probably worried. I don't know if she called them."   
Miaka nodded slowly. "Yeah… yeah. Take her home. Familiar surroundings are good after the shock wears off."   
"That's what Tetsuya said. I'll see you two later; tell Naora-chan I said good bye, okay?" He opened the door and walked out as they called acknowledgements, waving over his shoulder at them.   
"Ne, Reijirou, ready to go?" Nuriko was in the hallway, leaning against the door to the guestroom where they'd spent the night. "She's getting changed in there." He jerked his head to indicate the room.   
"So that's what you were doing."   
"Yep, two people worrying over one of Miaka's hysterical fits is enough." The seishi rolled his eyes and giggled. "I've seen too many of them to think that this one would be any different."   
"Yeah, well, thanks for convincing her to leave, you spared me that job." Reijirou leaned against the wall next to his "twin", folding his arms over his chest unconsciously in the same manner Nuriko had.   
"Eh, she couldn't hurt me." The seishi grinned impishly. "There are some advantages to being the equivalent of a ghost."   
Reijirou laughed lightly. "I bet there are." Suddenly he turned and rapped on the door with his knuckles. "Risako? You almost ready?" he called, loud enough to reach through the door, but soft enough to not disturb the small talk he could hear coming from the living room.   
"One minute," her voice replied. A few moments later the door swung inward to reveal Risako, dressed, as he was, in the clothes she'd been wearing the day before – long, loose skirt, somewhat fancy shirt, and her thin coat. Her face, although not quite as inaccessible as before, was still shut, keeping her emotions hidden. "Are you taking me home?"   
He nodded. "Your family's probably worried…" Somehow the reason he'd given Miaka and Taka sounded feeble when he told it to the one in question.   
But she didn't pick up on it, simply nodded and stepped out of the room, brushing past him and Nuriko to continue down the hall. The boys looked at each other with identical "How long will this go on?" expressions, then trotted after her, catching up as she was collecting her shoes from next to the door and saying cordial farewells to the assembly in the room. Reijirou flopped on the couch next to Tetsuya to pull on his own shoes, giving reassurances that yes, Miaka was fine, yes, she was awake, and no, she wasn't strangling Taka.   
Taka and Miaka emerged from their room as they were preparing to leave and Reijirou and Risako thanked them for letting them stay the night. Nuriko whispered something in Miaka's ear and she struggled to keep a straight face, but managed it. The seishi looked like he was about to give Taka a friendly parting smack on the back, but stopped just in time, seeing as there were a couple people there who wouldn't understand if Taka suddenly went flying into the wall.   
In all the "thank-you's" and "good-bye's" Miaka leaned over and whispered to Reijirou. "We'll call you when we know when the next summoning will happen. Can you get Gesshin for us?" Reijirou nodded minutely, remembering what she'd said about the other seishi helping the summoning.   
Then one last "Bye everyone!" and they were out of the crush of people. Reijirou sucked in a deep breath. "God, that apartment was NOT meant to hold that many bodies."   
Nuriko grinned impishly. "That's another one of those benefits…"   
"Can we get going now?" They broke off their conversation abruptly to look at Risako. She was staring out the window that was across the hall from the Sukunamis' home, slightly wistfully, the first expression her face had held in hours. Her fingertips and forehead rested lightly against the cool glass, eyes half-unfocused, as if she was looking into the past.   
Reijirou stood there, confused out of his mind. What was _with_ the sudden mood swings?   
There was a slight stirring of air as Nuriko floated up behind Risako, putting his arms around her shoulders and hugging her tightly. Risako's eyes flew open for a second, then closed themselves just as the faint reflection of tears appeared.   
Something sparked in Reijirou and suddenly he felt angry – _very_ angry. For no reason he could see, either. He spun on his heels and marched to the stairs, this time leaving Nuriko and Risako to give each other confused looks and follow quickly in his wake. He already had the car idling and his seat belt buckled when they climbed into the car, and he pulled away from the curb and into the morning commuter traffic.   
The wind whipping his hair around his face seemed to carry away the anger as well, and he relaxed against the cracked leather seat and simply let himself enjoy the driving, leaving the puzzle of the sudden emotion for a later time. He swung a left, in the direction of Risako's home, patting himself on the back for remembering the way. None of the three were speaking, but the noise from outside the car easily made up for the lack of talk.   
"So," he said into the silence when they were about halfway there, "how'd Chichiri look to _you_, Risako?" He had a sneaking suspicion that she hadn't noticed just _who'd_ appeared at the door with little to no warning while she was sitting there in Miaka's nightgown.   
He was right.   
"_Chichiri?!_"   
"Is _everyone_ gonna react like that when they hear?"   
"Most likely," Nuriko added, lounging sideways in the backseat with his arms folded behind his head. "It _is_ quite amusing, after all. 'Oh, Chichiri just walked in.' 'Great! Invite him in, give him a drink, bring the book, we can tell him about his past life over tea.' 'Of course!'" The seishi laughed quietly at the thought.   
"As if _that's_ ever gonna happen."   
"It might, you never know. Most of us are insane enough to try it."   
"That's true."   
"You weren't supposed to _agree_ with me on that."   
"Too bad, you can't stop me."   
"We'll just see about _that_."   
"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do?"   
"Take a right here," Risako interrupted, pointing. They had nearly driven by the turn. Reijirou quickly switched lanes, earning an angry honk and yell about damn reckless teens why don't you try driving correctly and leave innocent people out of your crashes which he paid absolutely no attention to as he checked for approaching traffic and made the right. All conversation in the car died, leaving a slightly uncomfortable not-silence where the sounds of the city around them seemed to press in worse than silence ever could.   
_Damn. What's going to snap her out of this?!_   
A few minutes later Risako's apartment building loomed into view as they topped a small hill and ducked under an overpass. Reijirou could just see, out of the corner of his eye, two radically different emotions cross Risako's face: hope and fear. Well, she was going to go home, whatever she said, thought, or did, and that was that. He would get this entire situation off his hands, as she didn't seem to want his help anyway. Well, that was fine with him.   
"What the…?" Risako pushed herself a bit up, trying to see over the windshield. "Wha… what are my parents doing outside?"   
"Your parents?" Reijirou craned around the windshield on his side, trying to catch a glimpse of what she'd seen. Sure enough, there was a man and a woman, both just on the far side of middle aged but healthy-looking, although their hair appeared to have gone white early. As they got closer it was plain to see the woman was standing on her tiptoes, sort of leaning out into the street, watching them coming. The man stood solidly beside her, a pipe clenched in his teeth. "Are those your parents?"   
"Yeah, but how…?" She shook her head slowly in amazement. "How'd they know I'd be coming now? I didn't call them…"   
Reijirou was forced to park a few spaces down from the building, but the Daishis ran down to meet them. At least, her mother did, with an anxious expression on her face; her father followed a bit more sedately, eyes narrowing at the car. Reijirou felt himself shrink back from that gaze, as if Daishi-san was glaring specifically at _him,_ even though he wasn't really glaring.   
"That is one impressive man," Nuriko whispered behind him. Apparently he felt the same thing.   
"Risako!" her mother exclaimed, yanking open the car door as her daughter unfastened the seat belt, then pulling her up by the hand, receiving a startled squawk from Risako. She ignored the squawk and wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter. Reijirou absently noticed that they were the same height before her father, who was still regarding him with that direct look, pulled his own door open.   
"Ummm… Daishi-san?"   
The man nodded. "Come inside, we need to talk."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"What's going on here?" he muttered to Nuriko bare minutes later, seated on the Daishis' comfortable couch, but possibly in the most awkward situation of his life. The seishi next to him was in no better condition; both were sitting rigidly upright, hands and arms held in to their sides, as the Daishi family occupied themselves in the kitchen.   
"I don't know, but something about this is starting to feel weird." Nuriko had no need to lower his voice, but he did anyway. The atmosphere of the apartment – a large one, like the Enomotos had – seemed to weigh physically on his non-physical shoulders and make any large noise seem out of place.   
"_Starting_ to?"   
"All right, _is_."   
Risako came out and handed Reijirou a glass of water, then turned without speaking and disappeared down the main hall. Reijirou started to get up and go after her, but Nuriko's hand on his arm prevented him from standing. He glanced at the seishi, then settled back into his original position, staring at the glass in his hands.   
A minute later he heard footsteps approaching, and looked up to see Risako's parents sitting in chairs across from him. No one said anything for a few moments as the stare down began, two against one. Well, really two, but they didn't know that.   
Nuriko matched them look for look, but Reijirou, who was the real target, soon began to sweat. What would they do to the guy who'd brought their daughter home _in the morning_ after going out _the night before_ and not telling them she wasn't coming home? And she left with a completely different guy to boot! Most parents would get the completely wrong impression from all that. Of course, the truth wasn't that happy, or easy to explain, but he sure as hell didn't want them to say she couldn't go out any more or he couldn't see her because of what they _assumed_ happened and not what really happened before even asking any questions-   
"First of all, Reijirou-kun, thank you."   
…   
What?!   
He felt Nuriko's look go from stare-down mode to puzzled regard next to him, his own doing much the same, as Risako's father continued speaking. "Thank you for taking care of Risa-chan last night."   
"Yes, we can't tell you how much we appreciate it," her mother chimed in.   
"Uh… confused?" Reijirou ventured, raising his hand.   
"He's not the only one," Nuriko muttered next to him.   
The woman chuckled and the man permitted himself a small smile, drawing on his pipe occasionally. "I don't blame you, dear. My husband jumped into this rather… abruptly. Should you explain or should I?" She turned to observe her husband.   
"I think I'd better, you know what would happen if you did." She laughed a little and nodded. He nodded back, placing his hand in hers. "Our names are Daishi Ryobe-" he gestured to himself, and Reijirou lowered his head just a tad in the impression of a bow, not wanting to take his eyes off them and wondering what was coming "-and Hoshiko." He performed the same head-twitch to Risako's mother. "But we used to be known by other names."   
He held back a moment before asking, as Daishi-san obviously wanted him to. "What other names?"   
Then he was blind.   
There was a sudden brightness as if someone had pressed 100-watt bulbs to his eyes and turned them on simultaneously. Both he and Nuriko yelped (loudly, but no one could blame them) and covered their eyes hurriedly with their hands. It was even worse than Taka's display earlier in the Sukunami apartment; his retina was one solid after-image that looked something like a sunburst. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised to find out that's what it was.   
"Overdid it again," he heard Daishi-san mutter, and the light retracted to a bearable level.   
"Dear, you really should watch that, it got to _me_." His wife. She was having problems too.   
"I know, I know… all right, you can stop hiding now, Reijirou-kun."   
He slowly unwound his arms from around his head and blinked his eyes clear once more that morning. Was this entire day going to be a series of repeats?   
"Reijirou!" It was Nuriko. He was startled. Something was up.   
He glanced up at his ghostly twin, and his jaw dropped. If it was possible, Nuriko had gone even paler, as white as paper. That in and of itself was a shock, but Nuriko was standing on both feet on the couch cushions (although he wasn't making indents) where he'd been sitting when the brightness came, and he was pointing a bit too dramatically in front of him. Reijirou swallowed his questions and looked where he pointed.   
He was really not prepared for what he saw. Sitting complacently there, still smoking his pipe idly and holding his wife's hand, was Ryobe. They were both watching the couch amusedly.   
And there, on his right cheek, was the glowing white symbol "kei". Stride. Holy Suzaku…   
"B-B-BYAKKO!"   
"Oh, so there you are," Hoshiko commented, looking up at Nuriko, who'd only been able to stutter out that one word. "I was wondering. Now sit down."   
Nuriko obeyed, dazedly.   
Reijirou just stared. And stared. And stared…   
"Close your mouth boy, you look like a fish."   
He unconsciously followed Ryobe's direction and swallowed, hard. "Wh… Who… Who…"   
"Who are we?"   
He nodded silent agreement.   
"I was – or am, depending on your point of view – Tokaki."   
"And I'm Subaru."   
"Byakko seishi…" Nuriko choked out. Hoshiko – _or should I call her Subaru?_ – looked at the seishi worriedly. "Are you all right? I can do a lot of things, but I don't know what I can do for semi-ghosts…"   
Reijirou didn't wait for Nuriko to answer. "How… How do you know?"   
Ryobe/Tokaki looked at him in surprise. "What, you don't think this is the _first_ time something like this has happened, do you?"   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: ~grins innocently~ You couldn't expect me to leave them out, could you? Remember to respond to the poll! Bye peeps! ~poofs~ 


	17. Chapter 17

  
DISCLAIMER:   
DISCLAIMER II: One of these days I'll get this right on the first try, but until that day, just assume that any blank disclaimers mean "Me No Own." Which is true.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sigh... real food, reaaaaaaalll foooooood... Kaze-chan just got her wisdom teeth out, and while she's not in pain, she's being deprived of real food. I need to stop talking in the third person. I've been living on popsicles and jello for the past two days, and I don't like either of the options all that much... Sigh. Tomorrow Kaze-chan, tomorrow and you can have crackers.   
I forgot AGAIN! ~GLOMPS Stormlight~ You're my 100th reviewer for this fic! You are awesomely cool! (As is everyone else who reviews!) Wait, weren't you also the 50th? Huh, fate moves in mysterious ways ~grins~   
Quick question-and-answer session this time, I think. Brace yourselves! ^_^ (Dad, please don't cook those biscuits! I'll want one! Noooooo!)   
Chibigreenwizardmon, that's definitely one of the possibilities. A couple others exist, I'm gonna leave you all hanging until the end ^_~ Yes, I am the Incarnation of Pure Evil.   
Kryssa, how do you get so accurate predictions of what's gonna be said in the next chapter? Do you look at my site or something? Not that it's bad if you do, but if you don't it's kinda telepathic! ^_^ You'll see what I mean.   
CLAMPraven, no, Risako is not Shifan's reincarnation. If she was, they'd have the same color hair. Since they don't (Risako's is red, Shifan's was blue), they can't be ^_^ That clear it up?   
Keimei, I'm sorry about making you wait for 16! I didn't really have much choice in the matter! But hey, I'm back, and back on a fairly normal schedule! ^_^ Happy?   
And of course, props to Flying Heart, Lib-chan, Evil Hunter, Draconsis, and Stormlight (yet again) for reviewing ~glomps everyone~ Thank you all!   
  


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Reijirou could only watch Ryobe- Tokaki- whatever name he was going by now as mute as a log, eyes wide, Nuriko beside him not doing much better. Or, any better, really. They were both gaping, although Nuriko maintained enough control to close his mouth a few times. It always dropped open again though.   
Hoshiko/Subaru started giggling, and her husband looked at her inquisitively. "It's like some bizarre carnival mirror."   
Reijirou shook his head violently, forcing his wits back into place, the ends of his hair stinging his eyes and cheeks. "Oh g-god… w-what happened?" Well, shaky was better than nothing.   
"Well, it was before Risako," Ryobe/Tokaki began, leaning back in his chair and puffing on his pipe. "Quite a bit before. In fact, before we got married, although we already knew each other and were dating."   
Hoshiko nodded. "Yes, one day in winter we were going home from a movie when this-"   
"Mom? Dad? What's going on?" The white light vanished, and Ryobe turned around to look behind him. Risako had changed clothes to faded jeans and an old sweatshirt, weekend wear. Reijirou finally and thankfully remembered it was Saturday - no classes, and he was still off work because of his injuries. "Why're you talking about before you got married? You almost never do that."   
"Eh-heh… Nothing's going on, Risa-chan." Ryobe plastered a casual expression on his face rapidly. "We're just talking with your friend."   
Risako raised one eyebrow in a combination skeptical/weirded-out expression. "Ohhhh…kay. If you say so." She sat down on the other side of Nuriko from Reijirou, watching her parents in a mildly quizzical manner.   
"Really, we were just having small talk until you came back."   
Reijirou rolled his eyes. He might have been a lot older, but Ryobe was being a - _Sorry, but it's true!_ - very obvious idiot.   
Hoshiko apparently thought so as well. She groaned lightly and smacked Ryobe in the back of the head, making Nuriko smother a giggle. "Oh for heaven's sakes, just tell her! She knows more than you think she does already!"   
"_What?!_ Why didn't you _tell_ me instead of hitting me?!" Ryobe sulked briefly until he was met by a sharp glare aimed at him by his wife, then he sighed and sat up straight in his chair again. "Shall I do it _again?_"   
"Yes, and be careful this time."   
Ryobe muttered something under his breath and closed his eyes, looking for all the world like an average middle-aged man who was possibly going to take a nap before dinner. But the average middle-aged man does not suddenly have glowing kanji appear on his face.   
Reijirou sighed audibly with relief as the brightness was very reasonable, making a nice statement without costing him a retina. Nuriko giggled, watching as Risako's lower jaw slowly fell open, her eyes locked on her father. "D… D… Dad?"   
He nodded gravely, serious once again. "It's true. Your mother as well."   
Risako turned unbelieving eyes on Hoshiko, who stood and held out her arms silently, a calm expression on her face that Risako could not match. She raised herself up to sit on the back of the couch, inching backwards, away from her mother, then pushed off and scrambled over to the floor, standing silently and gaping, her eyes wide and shining with tears of shock.   
"Risa-chan…" Hoshiko's voice was steady and she simply remained where she was, holding her arms out to her daughter.   
"You two… You two also…" Risako swallowed a small hiccup, taking a deep breath. "You two… could be… gone… after… NO!"   
"Risako."   
"NO! I WON'T BELIEVE IT!" The obvious weight of little sleep, the events of the night before still echoing in her mind, and the newly added shock of her parents' identities broke over her in an almost-visible wave, making her stumble back two paces, in the direction of the hall. Reijirou jumped to his feet, Nuriko shooting up next to him, both of them watching her anxiously.   
Ryobe stood slowly, grandly, giving her a pointed look. "Whether you believe it or not, it won't change. You know that."   
"NO! IT'S NOT TRUE!" She turned and fled down the hall, Reijirou dashing unthinkingly after her, she reaching her room first and slamming the door in his face. He grabbed the handle and tried turning it, but it wouldn't budge.   
_Damnit. She locked the door!_ "Risako!" He pounded on the door with his fist, not caring how much noise he made or if anything broke. "Risako! Open up! _Risako!_" No answer. He continued pounding, until a hand caught his wrist and pulled him around.   
Hoshiko regarded him for a long moment, frighteningly calm, and Reijirou suddenly saw Subaru in her. He'd had his doubts, she offering no proof of who she claimed to be, but the woman looking at him now couldn't be anything less than a force of nature in and of herself, capable of keeping Tokaki's drooling over other women to a minimum and helping save the Suzaku seishi. She nodded and let him go, putting her face up to the door and calling loudly enough to be heard inside. "Risako, dear, open the door."   
There was no answer, but the sounds of choked sobs came faintly to their ears.   
"Risako, open the door. Now."   
Still no answer. Reijirou looked at Hoshiko, eyes slightly wide, wondering what they should do. He might have had an older sister, but he couldn't remember her doing something like _this_ in all the nineteen years he'd known her.   
And Hoshiko was getting fed up. The understanding, sympathetic expression was erased as her brows furrowed together and her eyes narrowed at the door. "Stop acting like a child!" she snapped. "Come out of there _now!_"   
"I… I _can't…_"   
"_Daishi Risako…!_"   
"Go away! Don't you _get_ it? You don't understand! You can _never_ understand!"   
"I might _not!_ But your being silent doesn't help anything either! It DIDN'T HAPPEN!"   
"…What?"   
"You got away! You're still in one piece! They couldn't do anything to you! TALK TO ME!"   
How…?   
She knew.   
How did she know? Reijirou stood in stunned silence in the middle of the hall, staring at Risako's mother.   
Or… perhaps Subaru was a more fitting description of her now. That had to have been how she knew. Her seishi powers. Surely she had them, if her husband did and she knew.   
Yes. It was the only way.   
"Risako… please, open the door, let me in, we can talk about it. It'll be all right, dear. It'll all be all right…"   
"No."   
"All right… I'm fed up. If you won't open the door for me, I'll just have to open it for you."   
And before Reijirou could figure out what in the hell she was talking about, Hoshiko bent over the knob, holding it in one hand, and whispered softly to it. "_On mi kawate-tara wasuni_ lock." There was a soft click as the lock retreated and the door swung easily open when she twisted the knob.   
"Why do you get to have all the fun?" Ryobe called from the living room.   
"Because you're useless in these situations, dear," she called back blithely. Without so much as a by your leave Hoshiko marched into Risako's now open room. Reijirou blinked for a moment, then cautiously put his head around the corner.   
Risako was sitting on her bed, backed against the wall, her mouth open and eyes wide in surprise and amazement. Her mother, a seemingly-non-threatening presence, was standing before her, hands on her hips. Reijirou was prevented from seeing her expression because her back was to him, but he could guess it was none too pleased. "Now, Daishi Risako-san, neither one of us are leaving this room until we have one of those long, meaningful talks teenagers seem to dread so much. Scoot over girl, I need someplace to sit." Risako unconsciously obeyed her mother's order, and Hoshiko sat gracefully at the foot of the bed, looking towards her daughter. "I know what happened last night."   
Risako could only shake her head a bit, not understanding how.   
Hoshiko sighed and rubbed her temple. "I get headaches when I do this now… I can't keep it up much longer. Using my powers, I mean," she explained when she saw her daughter's uncomprehending look. "Last night I used them also, to find out what happened to you when you didn't come home. So I know, Risa-chan. I know. And I know that you know about the book, although," she quirked a wry smile, a mischievous glint in her eye, "your father had no idea what's been happening this past week. I thought as long as you were safe, he didn't need to know, and everything could go on as normal."   
"It can't," Risako whispered.   
"I know that now. But that doesn't mean it has to be bad. We're still your parents, and we love you very much." Hoshiko paused and blinked her eyes. "Oh, Byakko save me, I'm starting to use cliches."   
Risako couldn't help a small giggle. Her mother had to be original, if nothing else.   
"Risako… you know nothing happened to you last night. You were attacked, yes, but you _got away_. All you got was a few scratches, when much worse could have happened." Her eyes grew hard again, her gaze direct. Risako sobered instantly. "Let me repeat that: _you were safe_. You were fine. So why are you so moody, pushing everyone and everything away? There's no cause for it, and I won't allow it to happen."   
"But… Mom…"   
"Don't 'But Mom' me, you won't get away with it. There's no cause, as Miaka and even poor Yui had. And you're surrounded by people who want to see you better. Do you want me to count them off for you?" Risako made no reply, so Hoshiko raised her hands and began ticking names off on her fingers. "Me, your father, Reijirou-kun, Nuriko-kun, Miaka-chan, Taka-kun, Naora-chan, Yui-chan, Tetsuya-kun, Keisuke-kun, shall I continue with names of people who would if they knew what had happened?"   
"N… No… It's all right."   
Hoshiko watched her closely.   
Risako looked down at her lap, then up at her mother again, whose fingers were still extended. "I… I've gotta stop being stupid, ne?"   
"Exactly."   
"So that means I have to cheer up."   
"Maybe not cheer up, but be more like yourself. Sullen and silent you are _not_, and I feel myself well-qualified to make that judgement."   
"It's just… everything all at once… and then this past week, with Reijirou getting hurt, and so much going on…" Risako sighed heavily. "Now that I say it, it sounds really, incredibly stupid."   
"Good, I think so too."   
"And you call yourself my mother…"   
"I have a right." Hoshiko took Risako's hand in hers and squeezed it gently, searching her daughter's eyes. "So will you be okay now?"   
Risako nodded and brushed at her eyes with her free hand. "Yeah… You always knock sense into me. But can you try and explain about you and Dad? For me?"   
"Risako, I… I don't know how to explain it. I don't know _what_ to explain. But I'll try my best. Will you listen to me?" Risako nodded, watching her mother intently. "It was…" She trailed off and glanced at the door for the first time since entering the room. Reijirou couldn't pull back in time. "What are you, some sort of spy?"   
"Rei… REIJIROU!" Risako shrieked, wide-eyed, as he slunk guiltily into the room. He hadn't _wanted_ to listen to their private conversation, really he hadn't, but he kind of seemed frozen in the same position… "I'm gonna kill you for eavesdropping!"   
"Oh now dear, you wouldn't want to do that. He's a nice boy, all things considered." She cast a withering glance in the direction of the living room, where Ryobe and Nuriko were presumably talking. "Not as bad as _some_ I know…"   
"Umm… can I stay?"   
Hoshiko looked at Reijirou for a few seconds, sizing him up, then nodded. "Hai, you should probably hear this as well." Reijirou looked around for a chair. There wasn't one to be seen, so he had to settle for the floor, which wasn't uncomfortable. Risako's room was painted red, but it was hard to tell because most of the walls were hidden with posters, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, Post-It notes, and scrap pieces of paper. There were more push pins in that room than in an office supply store. There was no desk, but Risako had a tall, narrow bookcase against one wall, next to her closet that didn't seem to get much use, as a lot of clothing was littering the floor. Reijirou restrained himself from glancing around for anything a male mind would probably take advantage of, making himself focus on the Daishis.   
"So… where should I start?" Hoshiko inquired.   
"The beginning would be nice…" Risako idly replied.   
"Thought you'd say that. Let's see…" Hoshiko's gaze unfocused for a minute, as if she were looking at the past over Risako's shoulder. And, Reijirou realized with a start, maybe she was. "It was before we got married. We'd only known each other a bit before, your father mostly making perverted comments about my body and I retaliating, but he finally got up the nerve to ask me on a real date. We went out about twice before… everything started happening." Hoshiko hung her head and Reijirou was startled to see the sheen of tears between her lashes. "I'd rather not talk about that. It's… painful."   
"It's all right." Risako squeezed her mother's hand. "We don't need to know that. What about after everything calmed down?"   
"Well… we'd met our seishi counterparts and had taken them into ourselves, and finally remembered how much we'd loved each other in the past. So after that it was normal for us to get married. That's why we almost never talk about before, because there wasn't a way to explain everything without giving away the secret. You'd think we were crazy."   
"How… How did you get through it? If it's this painful now…" Reijirou trailed off, hoping Hoshiko could fill in the rest of the question herself.   
She smiled, happy and wistful in the same instant. "Being a seishi brought us grief, but it also brought us happiness, and for that I'm very thankful. We'd found each other at last, and it helped us find Risako."   
"_Find_ me? What're you talking about? I'm your daughter." Risako looked very understandably confused.   
"Yes, you are. In everything but blood."   
_Maybe I shouldn't be here…_   
"…What?"   
Hoshiko sighed. "Risako, you had to know at some point. You're old enough to accept it now. We wanted to have children, but for one reason or another, we were never able to. I had two miscarriages."   
_REALLY shouldn't be here…_   
"So we decided to adopt."   
"You… you mean…"   
She nodded softly, concentrating on her… daughter. "Yes. We adopted you. We decided we wanted a little girl… Well, actually, _I_ decided, I didn't want a boy picking up on Ryobe's habits. So we went to an adoption agency and searched for the perfect girl."   
Risako only stared at her. Reijirou considered leaving, but once again that would draw more attention to himself than just staying still. They seemed to have forgotten he was in the room.   
"We saw about… twenty, possibly more. We met most of them in person, held them in our arms. And then we saw you." She smiled at Risako, reaching out to stroke her cheek. "You were perfect… just what we'd been looking for. So gentle and sweet, so loving… you smiled at me when I picked you up. After that I thought we'd found the one we'd wanted. But there was more. It felt like something was pushing me to choose you, in a way. I looked at your father, and it was clear he felt it too. And then, when the agency representative left us alone with you, 'to let you get to know her better' she said… both our symbols began glowing dully." She ignored a gasp from Risako and continued on. "We know a sign when we get one. We signed the papers later that day, and you've been our daughter ever since."   
Silence filled the room for a few moments before Risako found her voice. "Wha… what about my… real parents?" The words were incredibly hard to get out around the lump in her throat. They were unimaginably odd, something she'd never thought she'd say… the person in front of her had always been her mother.   
Hoshiko shook her head. "We don't know. The agency didn't tell their clients about the real parents, adoption records are private. You could probably get into them yourself if you tried hard enough, long enough, but we didn't try. We wouldn't have gotten through in any case. We were just grateful to whoever let us have you.   
"But…" Her eyes clouded over again, a sign of grief. "We received a letter when you were seven. There was no return address, it was typed on plain paper, and postmarked in a major city. It thanked us for taking care of you, and was signed 'Her mother'. That's all we know about her."   
"I…"   
"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."   
"No… Thank you for telling me. You're... You're still my mom, it'd be... kind of hard to change after this long."   
Hoshiko smiled, then hugged Risako tightly. "That's what I'd thought you'd say."   
The touching, tender moment was interrupted by the phone. The three of them jumped a bit in surprise, but two rings later it was picked up. There was a brief interlude of near-silence in which the only sounds made were the familiar sounds of an apartment building in the morning and Ryobe's muffled rumbling voice on the phone. Then the noise of footsteps on the carpet approached the door, and Ryobe looked in, a confused expression on his face. "It's for… Reijirou-kun."   
Reijirou sighed internally with relief and scrambled up from the floor, grabbing the portable out of Ryobe's hand and ducking under his arm, heading back to the living room where he could see Nuriko looking no less confused. "Hello?"   
"Reijirou! Good, you're still there."   
"Miaka?"   
"Hai, hai, listen to me, we've got… not exactly a _problem_, but we've got to do something about it."   
"What's going on? Hang on." He flopped on the couch and put his hand over the mouthpiece. "Nuriko, go find another phone and get on it, it's Miaka, she says something's up."   
The seishi nodded and drifted away, and moments later Reijirou heard the click of a phone being picked up. "Miaka? What's wrong?"   
"Nuriko? Your telephone etiquette's getting much better." Reijirou could almost picture the teasing grin on Miaka's face.   
"I'll tickle you later, what's going on?"   
"Well… you know we have Chichiri now, right?"   
"We know he showed _up_ this morning, I caught you when you fainted, remember?" Reijirou replied.   
"Fortunately no. Anyway, Yui-chan and Tetsuya volunteered to distract Morin-chan while we explained to Hokusai about… everything. He took it pretty well, all things considered. Yui-chan and Tetsuya took Morin-chan out to show her something, but apparently she forgot something and came back, and she opened the door about at the part where we were in Sairou looking for Tatara…"   
Reijirou grimaced. "So she knows, too?"   
"Sort of… It seems like she's more in shock now than anything else. Like she's in a dream. Hokusai is… almost there with her. He didn't freak out, but he doesn't believe us quite yet, even though Taka showed him the oni symbol."   
"So what are we going to do about it?" Nuriko inquired. "I can pick them up if you like, but I'm not exactly there at the moment…"   
"No, we've got a better idea. Yui-chan and I discussed it, and we decided it would be best to go ahead and summon Chichiri now, get him used to having the 'other him' around. It should also prove to Morin-chan we're not joking or insane."   
"We leave you all for _one morning…_"   
"Don't get me started, I'll tease you forever."   
"So," Reijirou broke into their friendly bickering, "where are we doing this? At your place?" _I hope not,_ he thought silently, _their place is way way WAY too small for all those people and ghost-things._   
He could almost hear Miaka shake her head. "No. We don't have the book. I already called Murai, he said we could do it at his house."   
"Murai… Dr. Seo?"   
"Hai. He's still got the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, he's almost as enthusiastic about that thing as Nii-chan and Tetsuya were. And still are," she amended. "He actually _has_ a house, so we'll be more comfortable. But… He said his wife knows as well."   
"What's up with this?!" Reijirou exploded. "Is it all of a sudden Tell Your Family Members You're A Reincarnated Seishi Day?! Should _I_ follow the trend?!"   
"No, calm _down_ Reijirou." Miaka's voice was hard and mother-y. He calmed down. "But he has reason to believe that his wife is _also_ a reincarnation, although she's definitely not a seishi."   
"You mean… Shoka-san?" Nuriko sounded a lot less surprised than Reijirou.   
"Yes. Mitsukake apparently recognized her the first time he saw her, and then she accidentally found the book and started to read it, so he - they, sorry, told her everything."   
"And how's she reacting?"   
"Calmly. Better than about anyone else. But she was always that way."   
"Hai… she was."   
Reijirou held his tongue for a little bit, giving them time to think. "Do you want me to bring Gesshin and Risako?"   
"If you can. We're meeting at his house in about two hours. Have paper handy?" Reijirou grabbed a pen off the coffee table and Miaka rattled off the address, which he wrote on the back of his hand as there was no paper nearby. He then repeated it back to make sure he'd gotten it right.   
An idea was itching at his mind, and he waited for it to slowly form as Nuriko and Miaka made other plans... Ah-hah, there it was. "Miaka."   
"Yeah?"   
"Since we have Yui now… should I bring Kadiri as well?" He mentally reviewed the store's schedule in his head, trying to remember who was working. "I think it's her day off, we might not get another chance."   
"Kadiri?"   
"Soi."   
"Ahh. Let me ask Yui-chan." There was a series of soft thumps and thuds and some much muffled discussion between two barely recognizable female voices. "She says go ahead, she feels up to it. She managed to get her case changed to Monday, so we have the time today."   
"Wow, you all've been busy since we left."   
"Hai!"   
"Well, we'll see you there… and we might have some news of our own."   
"What? What're you talking about? Come on-" Reijirou hung up with a smirk. She could wait to hear, if Risako wanted to tell.   
Nuriko came floating lazily back again, a matching smirk on his own face. "I just did what you did… That's not very nice, is it?"   
"She'll forgive us."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Awhile later, after telling the Daishis about the phone call and letting Risako take a shower and change, then stopping by the Enomotos' for his own shower and change of clothes (and to let his parents know that he hadn't suddenly dropped dead in the middle of the street), they were on their way to the Ijiri apartment. Risako was chatting with Nuriko, in a much better mood, and Reijirou was trying to do the math to get four people and two ghosts into a car built to hold five at the most. Any way he figured it there wouldn't be enough room, so there was only one solution. "Ne, Nuriko."   
"Hai?"   
"Wanna possess me again?"   
The seishi grinned. "Sure!" He started to move towards Reijirou.   
"Ah-ah-ah, not now. When we get to Gesshin's. I don't want to have a wreck because you jump into me all of a sudden."   
"Oh, fine." Nuriko sat back in the backseat with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest. Risako giggled.   
A few minutes later he parallel parked in front of the Ijiris' building and jumped out of the car. Nuriko hopped out and landed beside him. Reijirou glanced at Risako. "Want to come? It's probably safer than sitting here."   
Risako shrugged and unbuckled her seat belt. "Why not?" She exited the car as Reijirou locked it, and the group started inside and up the stairs.   
The area outside 4C was surprisingly quiet. Usually if Ijiri-san was there the television was on, _loudly_, even though he was asleep in front of it. _Maybe he's actually working now,_ Reijirou thought hopefully as he pounded on the door.   
Gesshin's little sister answered. "Konnichi-wa, Reijirou-san."   
He grinned. "Hiya, Kid."   
"Don't call me that… for the hundredth time at least."   
"I'm sorry, Mitsuyo-chan."   
"No you're not." She peered around him, looking at Risako, her red-blonde hair swinging into her face. "Who're you?"   
"My name's Risako, I'm a friend of Reijirou and your brother. Is he home?"   
"Just a second. Come in, have a seat if you can." She left the door swinging open and walked down the short hall to her brother's room, opening the door and disappearing inside.   
Reijirou, Risako, and Nuriko entered and glanced around. The Ijiri kids must have been trying to clean, because there were two large plastic trash bags pushed against the wall under the windows, filled and tied with twisty-ties at the top. The floor was pretty clean, as Reijirou rarely saw it, most of the bottles and cans and paper plates now living in the trash bags, but the chairs were still stacked with various papers. They just shrugged at each other and waited for Gesshin to appear.   
A few moments later the door opened again and Mitsuyo came out, followed by her brother. "Hey man, hey Risako," he said casually.   
"Hello again." Risako smiled and then turned to Mitsuyo, striking up a conversation with her. Reijirou thanked her silently but profusely for distracting Mitsuyo, then grabbed Gesshin and pulled him back to his room, ignoring the vulgar protests and hearing Nuriko smother laughter behind them.   
Reijirou closed the door after they were all in Gesshin's room. "Tasuki-chan!" Nuriko cried gleefully, pouncing on the bandit and giving him a strangulating hug.   
"_Get th' fuck offa me!_" Tasuki, very surprisingly for a ghost, was turning an intense shade of blue. Nuriko snickered and let go of the bandit, who gulped in air like a drowning man.   
Reijirou and Gesshin just shook their heads and let their counterparts bicker happily. "So what's up man? I know ya can't call an' all, but showin' up this early means somethin's going on."   
"You're right. Sit down, this'll take awhile. Nuriko, Tasuki, PLEASE pay attention."   
"Wait." Nuriko walked over to Gesshin and placed his left hand under his chin, his right on top of his head, the arm bands glowing dully as he exerted pressure to keep the redhead's mouth shut. "Okay, go ahead."   
The entire story of everything that had happened since they'd last parted ways with each other, less than twenty hours before, took a long time. He summarized, but had to keep a lot of details in to make sure the story was comprehensible. He even told about the Daishis, all three having given he and Nuriko permission to tell about the two Byakko seishi. Nuriko added in details when he wanted, as he always did, holding Gesshin's mouth closed so his exclamations of surprise, various curses, and vengeful mutterings wouldn't be heard by his sister. They didn't worry about Tasuki, even though he was incredibly loud and profuse with his interruptions. Only the people who already knew anyway could hear him.   
Fifteen minutes later Nuriko finally let go of Gesshin, who swatted the seishi away and rubbed his head. "If I get a fuckin' bruise there, it'll be yer fault."   
"I know," Nuriko replied cheerfully.   
"But right now, we've got a job to do. Ready, you two?" Nuriko and Tasuki both looked at Reijirou and nodded, Tasuki grinning just enough to show the tips of his fangs, his eyes narrowed with glee.   
"'m not so sure _I_ am, 'sit really gotta happen? I mean, Tasuki, no 'ffense man, but ye're lookin' pretty damn weird."   
Reijirou grinned and clapped a hand on Gesshin's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. And you get to do some pretty cool things."   
Gesshin grumbled, but closed his eyes, swallowed hard, then nodded. "Jus' do it afore I get a chance t' think about it."   
"That's the idea." Nuriko backed up a step, Tasuki next to him, then both charged forward at the same time. They ran two, three paces, maniacal grins plastered on both their faces, then jumped together.   
Reijirou stumbled back a step, as did Gesshin next to him, as Nuriko hit him full in the chest and flew/sank into him, joining into his nerves and limbs and everything about him. Even though it had happened to him several times before, he still wasn't completely used to the way the two minds became one, and he clenched his teeth as Nuriko slowly appeared in his brain. Then the fire slowly retreated to a comfortable, bearable level, and everything was fine. He glanced down at his wrists, and there, indeed, were Nuriko's bracelets, half-hidden beneath his sleeves. He glanced over at Gesshin.   
His friend was standing, a bewildered, vacant look on his face, one Reijirou instantly associated with the internal conversations one could have when one had one's counterpart inside them, especially the first time. In Gesshin's hand was Tasuki's tessen, flaring out slightly, looking as if it were just waiting for Gesshin to scream the incantation. Of course he wouldn't, not in his own room, but Reijirou could see his eyes shifting down to the tessen, then his mouth widening slowly in his typical half-psychotic grin. Tasuki must've told him exactly what he could do in this state.   
_~ Somehow I think Gesshin's going to have fun like this… ~   
Oh yeah._ "Ready to go?"   
Gesshin slowly nodded. "Yeah… Yeah. Jus'…" He paused as if he were listening to something, and he probably was. "Jus' a second."   
Reijirou hadn't noticed before, but as Gesshin's free hand moved he could see the wide strap of the tessen's carrier looping over his right shoulder. Well, that was convenient for some things. Gesshin's hand flicked at the large buckle near his waist and the carrier slithered off. He quickly caught it and slid the tessen in, then tucked it all under his flannel shirt, where it would be much less noticeable. "Now 'm ready. Le's go."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Not exactly a cliffhanger, but it still makes ya wonder ^_^ I am devious and evil and yes, I plan ways to end my chapters on cliffhangers. Don't you just love me?   



	18. Chapter 18

  
DISCLAIMER: I own Coffee, Strawberry, Cheese, Macaroni, Sushi, and Blueberry. I no own FY.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Apparently the thing that got most people worried after that last chapter was not the joint summoning of Chichiri and Soi, but rather What Will Gesshin Do Now That He Has the Tessen. Can't say that I blame you ^_^ Unfortunately he doesn't really get a chance to display the pyromania here because too much other stuff is going on. ~waits for the collective groans of disappointment to die down before continuing~ However. I am working on just a little side-thing (what _is_ it with me and side stories?) that deals with Gesshin and Tasuki and what they do after Gesshin has a very bad day at work... Let's just assume chaos explodes. No, I don't know when it'll be done, but when it is you'll see it.   
And I have decided that from here on in, unless people are so hoplessly confused by something that they can't understand what's just passed in a chapter, that I'm not going to explain a lot of stuff. ^^;;;; Don't hurt me! It's just that the questions you all are asking (as much as I love them and love answering them and interacting with everyone) would mean I would have to give away future plot points to answer. Which is definitely something I don't want to do. So from now on, unless you're one of my SLPRs (and you people know who you are ^_~) or someone who begs loud and long, you probably won't get much explanation. Clarification, possibly. Explanation, I'd say not. Don't kill me please!   
That being said, I'm gonna do one more round of answer-some-of-the-questions now ^_^ Just don't expect as much as usual.   
As to Hoshiko and Ryobe: ~grins sheepishly~ Really, when I started writing them in this story, it was a way to work them in believably just because I wanted them in and get more practice for Market at the same time. If you look at chapter 10 you'll see that Risako's mother makes a mini-debut; when I wrote that, I had no idea that the mother would turn out to be Subaru-incarnate. Like I've said before, this story is so sporadic it isn't funny; almost _nothing_ I've written was pre-planned. When I first came up with the idea, for example, I never meant to include any _other_ reincarnations. Reijirou was gonna be the only one. And see what happened! But back to Hoshiko and Ryobe: you'll just have to wait and see. Their position is kinda weird.   
Sano: torture is a relative word ~smiles innocently~ Just remember my oft-repeated claim that in my hands, no character is safe.   
Flying Heart and Draconsis, you are wonderful, but any more information about Risako remains classified (I'm still not exactly sure and I'm not about to spill and then change my mind). We'll all just have to wait and see! Chibigreenwizardmon, I _can_ answer your question though: her parents were no one of importance to the story. Probably your stereotypical teen romance where the girl gets pregnant but then can't take care of the kid. I've never thought about her real parents as I've got too much else to think of with this fic. ^_^ Don't hate me, they're just not important.   
nhuha, do you mean the pacing or the posting rate?   
Evil Hunter, that was definitely an interesting rant. ^_^ You could be a rant writer for a newspaper or something like that.   
Lib-chan, you will find out! And you should know that puppy dog eyes have absolutely NO affect on me, as my best friend can attest to.   
Lumi-chan, thanks for liking Risako! I can't help but like her too, and I'm glad to see people don't hold being an OC against her ^_^   
Keimei, complaining's OK ^_~ I can take it. I think. And no, Hoshiko and Ryobe will not be at the Chichiri/Soi summoning. Sorry if that was confusing.   
yue-vae, here's the update! But check at the bottom for some Important Information. J. Liha, you too.   
Stormlight, the world shall tremble when I get around to it ^_~ That little thing's shaping up to be verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting...   
CLAMPraven, you might be turning into a fangirl ~giggles~ That sounds sooooooooo weird to say, but you might be keeping better track of everything than I am! If I ever have any questions about what's gone on in this story I'll probably ask you ^_~   
Natsuki-chan, like I said above, I'm still not sure. It hasn't managed to come up yet in what I've written. I guess we'll all just have to wait and find out together.   
And Kryssa ^_^ With all the Squeeze-pops you've wished me, I'm gonna be buried in them! I'm gonna get this hunka junk to work again and write, I promise! And yes, we must be pyschic, because that part was one of my favorites as well ^_^   
EVERYONE! Important Information at the bottom! Please read!   
  


*************************************************************************************

  
  
The door to Kadiri's apartment was painted, strictly against building codes, a bright yellow that stuck out like the sun in the pale beige of the hallway. She always had to do things differently, no matter if it got her in trouble. Reijirou grinned at the paint, then knocked sharply on her door, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet from sheer caffeine overload.   
The door opened a crack and a furry missile shot out, trying to make a break past him for the stairwell. However, Reijirou was anticipating it and he quickly scooped it up, sandwiching it between his shoulder and arm and ignoring its yowling protests.   
_~ What's… that? ~   
One of Kadiri's cats. Coffee._ Reijirou pushed the dark brown tail out of his face, making sure to keep a firm hold on the fuzzy bundle with his other arm, and tapped the door lightly with his foot. Fortunately no more four-legged things tried to spill out of the apartment; Coffee was the only one that ever really attempted it. The door opened the rest of the way from the inside and then a new pair of arms reached out to take the one-person cat from his hold. "Hey, Kadiri."   
"Reijirou? Why're you here?" Her wine-red hair was still wet from a shower and she was dressed in very ratty clothes, her shirt full of holes large and small from various cat claws and a giant rip in the left knee of an extremely abused pair of khakis. She dumped the protesting cat inside and quickly shut the door to prevent a second escape. "This is really rare, is something wrong at the store?"   
He shook his head to reassure her. "No, I'm not even working today. I just wanted to ask you to come somewhere with me."   
"Where?"   
"To a friend of mine's. A lot of people are going to be there, I think you'd like them. And Gesshin's going as well, he's down in the car right now."   
"Chiaki's gonna kill you for hogging the car lately, ya know, " she said with a grin.   
Reijirou put on his pitiful face that easily softened the hardest of hearts. "But I was injured! She's in perfect health!"   
_~ She certainly has gotten better with this new life. Last time I saw her alive she was trying to kill us all, ~_ Nuriko commented wryly.   
_Give her a break, this time she's still sane. Never had Nakago to control her. Never will now..._ "Kadiri," he began when she didn't respond, "what else are you gonna do today, ne? Sit here and watch old American movies?"   
She grinned guiltily. "Actually… yes!"   
Reijirou groaned and grabbed her wrist, starting to pull her back towards the elevator. "Oh no you don't, you don't get out enough, and so you are coming with me."   
"Stop it, idiot!" She dug in her heels and yanked her wrist out of his grasp, glaring at him mildly as she rubbed feeling back into the abused limb. "We're not _all_ social butterflies like you. A few questions first."   
He shrugged and leaned against the wall comfortably. "Shoot."   
"One: how much older than you am I?"   
"Five years at least."   
"Two: outside of work, do I frequently tell you what to do?"   
"Noooo."   
"Three: what are you going to do if I flatly refuse?"   
He grinned impishly. "Tie you, gag you, and take you anyway."   
She groaned. "Ahou… Reijirou no baka…"   
_Any input from the peanut gallery?   
~ What's the peanut gallery? ~   
At the moment, you.   
~ Nope, no comment. ~_   
Kadiri closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, hanging her head a bit. Then she took a deep breath and exhaled quickly. It sounded somewhat resigned. "I know you too well, you're not gonna give me a choice. Will you at least let me _change_?"   
He laughed. "Where's the fun in that? Gesshin'd-" She socked him in the arm. "Ne! That hurt!"   
"Good, you need a taste of your own damn medicine. Come on, you can wait inside while I get dressed." She twisted the knob to her apartment again, opening the door slowly and blocking the widening crack with her foot to prevent another dash by Coffee. She quickly peeked in to make sure no cats were waiting for a chance to get out, then swung open the door the rest of the way and entered easily, Reijirou/Nuriko following.   
Kadiri's apartment was messy, but mostly that fact was due to the cramped quarters in which she lived. There was a tiny kitchenette open directly to the small main room, one bathroom, her bedroom, and a spare room she had put to work as a sort of "office" and storage for all her electronic toys that would make Miaka envious. Her money went into her music collection, stereo, computer, and closet; she didn't seem to need anything else.   
Except the cats. She had no less than five at a time, again breaking building codes. The super frequently yelled at her that no more than two were permitted, but she simply said that it was her home and she could do as she pleased and went on her way. Reijirou had happened to be there once when it happened and he'd been laughing over the bewildered/angry look on his face for days.   
Coffee came running up to him, yowling loudly to his face for some cat-thing, probably wanting him to open the door. Strawberry was curled up on the back of the couch, looking somewhat like a loaf of reddish bread as all her paws were tucked under her body. He couldn't see Cheese or Macaroni, but Sushi was happily crunching at some kitty kibble in a corner of the kitchenette. Blueberry was chewing on a bit of yarn in front of the small TV.   
_~ How many cats does one person_ need?! _Even Tama-neko seemed to be too much to take care of sometimes! ~   
She's got six, I wouldn't suggest asking her that question if I were you. They're her friends.   
~ She needs some human friends then. ~   
Remind me to hit you…_   
Reijirou didn't quite know what to do with himself, and Nuriko was starting to sound somewhat cynical, which seemed slightly disturbing and… wrong, somehow. He supposed everyone was entitled to cynical moods once in awhile, but it felt weird when Nuriko was the "one" in "everyone". He sat on the tattered couch and rubbed Strawberry's back while he waited for Kadiri to finish making herself presentable. The cat's eyes narrowed benevolently in adoration and she began to purr, making him grin as his hand began to vibrate.   
"Ne, Reijirou, is this gonna be fancy?" Kadiri's voice echoed from her room. He could easily picture her holding up outfits to herself in front of the full-length mirror she'd put in her room and considering each one.   
He groaned. Even _he_ wasn't as bad as her. "Not in the least. Just get something socially acceptable on and let's get going!"   
"That's quite funny considering it's coming from you."   
"You're too high-maintenance."   
"I live _here_ and you think I'm high-maintenance?" Her voice was muffled as if she were speaking through a sweater. "You're insane."   
"Look at what you _wear_! And how much of it you've _got!_ It's no wonder you can't afford to live somewhere else."   
"I could if I wanted." She emerged, now dressed in her "public" clothes: a thick knit baggy blue sweater, a brand-new pair of off-white clinging denim pants (with no hole in the knee), a delicate gold chain with a small pendant around her neck, one boot with a two-inch heel already on and the other in her hand. She braced herself against the wall with one hand and balanced on her booted foot as she slid her other leg into the second boot, then quickly pulled up the zipper. She was carrying her makeup case, which he rolled his eyes at. At least she hadn't insisted on staying until she could _apply_ all that stuff. He knew more about it than most males, but he had little patience with it. How Nuriko had survived putting that stuff on every day he'd never know.   
"Are you done _at last?_"   
"Let me just give the cats some more food, then we can get out of here." She straightened up and strode into the kitchen, kneeling in front of the cabinet under the sink and pulling out a large box of kibble. "They're almost out." She gently pushed Sushi away from the bowl with her right hand and filled it to the top. The very, very overweight cat promptly resumed eating when she turned away to put the box back.   
"You know, maybe the cats wouldn't be so big if you didn't feed 'em as much as you do," Reijirou remarked off-handedly.   
"Ne, most of them started out as street cats, they deserve a little more to make up for it."   
"Not when they weigh more than a small dog," he muttered under his breath as Kadiri stood again. He looked up and groaned. "God, I hate it when you wear heels… I have to look up to you."   
She grinned and ruffled his hair, making him mutter threats in her direction as he tried to smooth it down again. "You should be used to it, you're short enough that you have to look up at most people anyway."   
"Yeah, but not you!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Risako and Kadiri had good-naturedly given Reijirou and Gesshin a hard time about being confined to the backseat, happily complaining of sexist discrimination and teasing them for a bit. But the guys were free to get them back, so it was all right. Reijirou had rolled his eyes when he saw Kadiri somehow managing to apply her makeup perfectly while bouncing through the city, but she had done it, and hadn't gotten mascara on the seat, so he said nothing. Risako and Kadiri seemed to get along well, and all of them kept their mouths shut as to the purpose behind this "impromptu gathering." The less chance she'd have to jump out of a speeding car, the better.   
The street around the Seos' house was already littered with cars. Gesshin whistled as he hoisted himself over the windshield to get a better view. "How many're s'pposed t' be here?"   
"There should be at least three cars, besides the Seos'." Reijirou leaned over and counted. Yep, three: if he was guessing right, they belonged to the Sukunamis, the Kajiwaras, and the Obinatas. He only hoped Miaka and Taka hadn't brought Naora, it'd be a little hard to explain everything to her…   
He had to drive onto a side street to find a place to park next to a meter, and when the car was secure all four of them trooped up to the front door. Reijirou was impressed: Dr. Seo couldn't have been a doctor for long, but he was able to afford a house this early. And right in the city, as well. That said a lot for the medical profession.   
Gesshin pushed the doorbell (perhaps a little too hard, a sure sign of Tasuki's enthusiasm for new contraptions), then stepped back from the entrance, crossing his arms over his chest in a sure sign of impatience, tapping his right foot rapidly. "C'mon, c'mon, get th' damn door a'ready…"   
"Gesshin, you _just rang the bell_. Give them a chance to _actually walk to the door_," Kadiri replied sarcastically.   
Fortunately, before one of their famous fights could break out, Gesshin's prayers were answered and the door swung in with a creak of the hinges. A tall, VERY tall woman was standing there. She somehow managed to top even Kadiri in her boots, and was as tall as Gesshin. She had incredibly long dark blonde hair that was pulled into a simple ponytail at the nape of her neck, clear blue eyes, and a kind face. She smiled warmly at them all. "You must be the others. Come in, they're all having tea."   
_~ Shoka-san… Wow, Mitsukake must be happy. ~   
Wouldn't you be?_   
"I'm Seo Setsuko," she continued, stepping back and holding the door open, giving them plenty of room as they entered and chorused a variety of "hellos". "Everyone's in the living room, I'll show you where." They kicked off their shoes quickly (Kadiri having a bit of trouble and Gesshin taking full advantage of it to laugh at her) and followed her.   
A firm hand grasped Reijirou's upper arm as they walked. "Ne, Reijirou, do I know anyone else who'll be here?" Kadiri whispered to him. "Will I be the only stranger?"   
He felt Nuriko grin and had to fight to keep it from appearing on his own face. "No you won't, trust me. And you probably don't, unless there's some weird coincidence of the space/time continuum or something like that and you've actually _left your apartment_ before."   
She just gave him a dirty look and punched him in the shoulder.   
There were a LOT of people in the living room: Miaka, Taka, Keisuke (but no Naora, Reijirou noted with relief), Dr. Seo, Morin, Hokusai, Yui, and Tetsuya; Dr. Seo was holding a small baby with extreme caution. Hokusai and Morin still looked half-stunned. Keisuke, Taka, and Tetsuya were smirking slightly, and Miaka and Yui were giving them dirty looks. Reijirou shook his head and he heard Gesshin curse under his breath - probably a reaction from Tasuki.   
"Hello everyone," Risako chirped, plunking down on the floor next to the coffee table as all the chairs were taken.   
Miaka and Yui broke off glaring at their relations to study her with concern for a moment, then they both slowly grinned as they detected the changes in her from that morning. "Hi Risako," Yui replied, "feeling better?"   
"Hai, much, thanks."   
Neither Gesshin nor Kadiri had moved. Reijirou rolled his eyes. _Chickens…_ "Everyone, this is Mizutani Kadiri and Ijiri Gesshin. That's Sukunami Miaka, Sukunami Taka, Yuki Keisuke…" He continued introductions until he had covered everyone in the room, pointing at the appropriate people as he stated their names and finishing with Dr. Seo. "So what's been going on?"   
"Not much, just a lot of talk," Tetsuya replied casually. He was sprawled on a large couch next to his wife, looking perfectly relaxed and at ease. Reijirou noticed the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho lay between them, discreetly hidden from obvious view.   
"Why don't you all sit down?" Dr. Seo suggested, freeing up one hand to wave it in the direction of the floor. "The carpet's actually very comfortable."   
_~ Ne, Reijirou, go somewhere private for a minute. ~   
Why?   
~ I want out! ~   
All right, all right._ "Go on you two, sit," he said, giving Gesshin a friendly push in the direction of the coffee table and earning a withering glance for his pains. "Dr. Seo, is your bathroom somewhere around here?"   
The tall man nodded. "Hai, just turn around and head through the kitchen, first door on the right."   
"Arigato." He took off at a slow jog down the mini-hall.   
It turned out to not be necessary to go further than the kitchen; Mitsukake was in there, leaning against a counter and looking contemplative. He glanced up and nodded a greeting as Reijirou entered, remaining mostly in his brown study. Reijirou stepped out of sight of the living room and nodded back, bracing himself for the separation.   
This time it wasn't excruciatingly painful, as it had been after he was wounded, nor a quick severing like the time right before they found out Adam was dead. It was getting more and more familiar; it felt kind of like Velcro in a way, kind of a painless tearing that gradually separated itself from him, a nerve here, a limb there, and fell gracefully out of him. In a few moments Nuriko stood in the middle of the floor, looking a bit dazed but none the worse for wear.   
"Hm? Oh… Just how Chichiri and Soi might take it… There are so many different ways…"   
"Well," Reijirou remembered to keep his voice low so at least one of the others wouldn't hear him and think he was talking to himself. "Hokusai at least already knows… We just have to tell Kadiri." He winced at the look he suddenly pictured on her face in response to the news. "That'll probably be tough."   
"Which is why you're doing it."   
"Nani?!"   
"She knows you the best, and apparently she trusts you. That makes for a strong argument that she'll take it more seriously coming from you." Mitsukake regarded him with a level expression.   
Reijirou groaned. Nuriko hurriedly spoke to assuage any flows of bitterness that may have been about to show up. "Has Chichiri seen anyone yet?"   
Mitsukake nodded. "Hai… He and his wife both saw me when they came in; we thought it would be best if they were forced to confront it…" He winced a bit. "But I think it made things worse."   
"Worse? How worse?"   
"You've seen them, haven't you?"   
Both boys nodded.   
"They've been like that for _two hours_."   
"Oh lord…" Reijirou groaned. "This is going to be _hard._"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Reijirou, are you out of your fucking MIND?!"   
"NO I'm fucking _not_ and keep your voice down!"   
"You're insane! You've gotta be insane!"   
"Kadiri-san, he's not." Yui broke in, sighing. "Somehow I knew this would happen… Soi overreacted a lot too."   
"I AM NOT THIS SOI PERSON!"   
"Yeah ya fuckin' are, now jus' SHUT UP and LISTEN TO THEM!" Gesshin grabbed one of Kadiri's arms to keep her from bolting and Reijirou dove for the other. "Listen," Gesshin growled, "if they had t' do this t' _me_ then _ye're_ not fuckin' gettin' out of it. It's th' truth, all of it."   
It was plain Kadiri really did think they were out of their minds. She looked scared and disbelieving and panicky all at once. Reijirou was reminded strongly of when they'd broken it to Gesshin.   
"Look," came a new voice: Setsuko's. "All this screaming isn't helping. Gesshin-kun, calm down. Kadiri-san, please try and believe it." Setsuko assumed the role of alpha female easily, handing her small son to her husband and crossing the room to kneel in front of Kadiri. "I know this is hard," she spoke softly, comfortingly. "It was hard for me too. For everyone. It all seems so impossible, doesn't it?" Kadiri slowly nodded in response to the question. "No one here really believed it… some of them still don't." She cast a glance at Morin and Hokusai. "But if we can prove it… will you believe us?"   
Reijirou was very impressed with Setsuko. No wonder she took it so calmly; she was made of rock. Compared to her at that moment, Kadiri looked like a scared little girl. He saw Dr. Seo - Murai, he corrected himself; the doctor had insisted he drop the formalities - smiling proudly at his wife. "How…" Even Kadiri's voice was small. "How will you prove it?"   
Setsuko looked pointedly at Gesshin and he nodded, letting go of Kadiri's arm and leaving only Reijirou supporting her. He quickly reached under his shirt and pulled out the tessen, carrier and all. He slid the diamond fan out and it flared, almost as if it were seeking breathing room. Gesshin's eyes were vacant and turned inward as if he were spaced out, a recognizable sign of internal conversation.   
"All right, hold on." Gesshin closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the tessen, bracing himself in his kneeling position. The tessen began to glow with a dull red light, a muted form of the light of Suzaku. Then ghostly body parts started appearing out of random places: extra hair from his neck, another hand from his elbow. It was extremely bizarre, and Reijirou had to wonder if that was how it looked when he and Nuriko separated. But at the same time it was somehow strangely graceful. Tasuki's right hand seemed to float out of Gesshin's and take the tessen with it easily, the diamond passing through flesh and bone smoothly and not leaving a mark. However, all the gracefulness was instantly destroyed when Tasuki flopped ignominiously to the beige carpet.   
Nuriko cackled. "Bit too hard for you, Tasuki-chan?"   
Strong as he was, Reijirou couldn't keep a hold of Kadiri at the sight of the two seishi. She squeaked and scrambled back into the wall.   
"Holy… You mean this is _real?!_ Not mirrors, or holograms, or… or… or something else?!" Across the room Hokusai had moved _at last_. He'd jumped to his feet and was looking rapidly back and forth between the two ghosts, who both stared straight back at him. "You mean… it's all true? All of it?"   
Miaka stood. "Yes, it's real. And we need your help." She approached him quietly as she spoke, as if he was an animal she was trying not to scare. "You've heard it all… we need your help to stop him."   
"Stop who? What's going on? Is _everyone_ here in on this scam?"   
Tasuki whirled on Kadiri, his tessen pointing straight at her, a very ticked off expression on his face. "Look, I don' like ya, so ya can jus' _shut up_ or I'll-"   
"YOU shut up Tasuki!" Nuriko popped up next to the bandit, picked him up by his jacket collar in one swift motion, and threw him across the room. Over everyone's heads. He crashed behind the couch Morin was sitting on; it had only been a gentle toss to get the point across.   
Murai broke the surprised silence after a moment. "Thank you for not throwing him into the wall."   
"It was the least I could do," Nuriko replied with a grin.   
One of the bandit's arms appeared over the couch. He slung the other over and pulled himself up with a very audible groan. Nuriko glared at him again. "You stay over there and explain it to Chichiri if you can't be civil. Yui, can you help me over here?"   
Yui grinned. "Of course." She quickly came over to Kadiri and Nuriko, the former of which was still staring at the latter. Risako joined them. Tasuki grumbled a bit more and climbed over the couch to help Miaka and Gesshin in attempting to clarify things with Hokusai, Morin listening on. Taka, Tetsuya, and Keisuke had opened the translation and were pointing at something, debating intensely between themselves. Murai and Setsuko were talking quietly as Setsuko rocked the baby, who was falling easily asleep. Reijirou didn't really have anything to do, so he stood, stretching to loosen up, and just watched everyone. Kadiri and Hokusai both looked to be settling down after a few minutes, which could only be good.   
He felt a presence next to him and looked up. Mitsukake was standing there, watching the room as he was, a bland expression on his face. Reijirou grinned. He knew better: under there, the healer was probably laughing at it all. "Did I miss the fun?" His deep voice seemed stoic, but Reijirou could detect a hint of amusement in the tones.   
"Yes, I'm sorry to say you did."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"All right, who's first?" Risako asked cheerfully.   
Kadiri and Hokusai looked at each other, then back at Risako. "Does it matter?" Hokusai asked.   
Risako shrugged. "I don't think so."   
They had both agreed to try the summoning, and to withhold judgement on the sanity of the others until they saw whether they succeeded or failed. With the introduction of Ashitare and his campaign against the Suzaku and Seiryu seishi into the conversation, it suddenly hadn't been a game to them any more. Reijirou's scars had proved that this could, indeed, be very, very deadly to one caught unprepared. And Adam's death was hanging over everyone's heads, a silent warning that the sooner they were finished, the better. But still, neither were willing to be the first. They looked back at each other as if daring the other one to go first and prove them wrong.   
Keisuke groaned. "They won't decide at this rate, just flip a coin or something. Anyone have any loose change?"   
"Yeah, here." Taka dug in his pocket and pulled out a 100-yen piece. He flicked it at his brother in law, who caught it and slapped it down on the back of his hand without looking at it. "All right you two… Kadiri, pick, heads or tails."   
"Uh…" She glanced at Hokusai again, then looked nervously back at Keisuke. "…H-heads."   
Keisuke lifted his hand. Tails.   
Kadiri swore long and violently, making Tasuki blink at her in surprise, then grin in approval. "Tha's more like it…"   
Yui silenced him with a sharp glare, then picked up the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho and walked over to Kadiri. "Relax," she told the younger woman with a smile. "Sit down." She steered her to a chair and gently pushed down on her shoulders until she sat. "It'll be all right. Trust me." Kadiri nodded slightly, keeping silently focused on Yui. "Now…" Yui placed the book in Kadiri's hands and positioned them the same way Miaka had done with Reijirou, Murai, and Gesshin, explaining to her the need to concentrate on Soi and only Soi while they were attempting this, how she couldn't move much or drop the book.   
Mitsukake silently stood ready in case the same thing happened to Yui that had happened to Miaka when she called Nuriko.   
Yui stood firmly in front of Kadiri, eyes closed and hands in the miko position, murmuring barely loudly enough to be heard. All eyes in the room were watching them anxiously, Morin and Hokusai easily the most worried. Tetsuya also looked concerned; the others were only wary.   
The smoke plume began to grow from the book, making the Obinatas gasp and the rest sit up a little straighter. It was starting…   
The smoke grew taller and wider, sweeping out from the book and making Kadiri squeak again, but she was too stunned to let go of the book. Yui's voice slowly gained volume but was still too soft for words to be distinguished. The dark shape began to form in the cloud. It was working…   
"…from the book, please come out to us!"   
The noiseless explosion came and went, taking the smoke with it. A new ghost-shape was revealed, dressed partially in ancient Chinese armor and partially in sand-colored clothes one wouldn't expect a girl to wear, with boots that came up to her knees and braces on her forearms. Her wine-colored hair, the same color as Kadiri's but about three feet longer, was tied in a loop on one side of her head with a long tail hanging down to her knees. She floated slowly to the ground in the noiseless room, touching the floor gracefully and opening her eyes.   
Kadiri was openly staring in amazement. The two of them, like Reijirou and Nuriko, Murai and Mitsukake, and Gesshin and Tasuki could almost be twins. There were slight differences here and there, but they were the same height, about the same weight, with nearly the same face. Kadiri's eyes, however, were a startlingly brilliant blue, while Soi's were bluish-gray. But they could have been twins. They inspected each other closely, Soi looking for answers in her counterpart's form and Kadiri still in shock.   
A soft growling broke through the silence, and everyone turned just in time to see Tasuki fly in Soi's direction, tessen drawn ominously. Apparently he hadn't been able to control his animosity… "YA FUCKIN' DEVIL!"   
Soi just watched him come, raising an arm to point at him.   
"Uh-oh… NO! SOI! DON'T!" Yui screamed.   
WHUMP.   
Tasuki was now squashed on the floor with one very large healer on him. The redhead began muttering into the carpet, and Mitsukake calmly punched him in the head with a force that would leave an ordinary man seeing stars. Soi blinked in surprise and slowly lowered her arm. "Is that good enough?" Mitsukake asked, standing up and brushing his hands off. "Sorry for taking your job, Nuriko."   
"Eh, it's okay." The small seishi walked over and picked Tasuki up, instantly putting him in a headlock. "Look baka, we need to _work together_. So _no attacking her_, she's on our side."   
Soi blinked again. "Your side? Yui-sama, are they in this too?" Reijirou, even though he was expecting it, was mildly creeped out: their voices were the same as well.   
Yui nodded, watching her seishi carefully. She had never been as close to her bunch as Miaka had, but she had some fellow feeling with Soi… Both of them women, obviously, both betrayed by Nakago… now was what would determine the pattern of future meetings with her seishi, whom she hadn't known that well.   
Apparently, Soi seemed to know this as well. Leaving Kadiri in her chair, she walked over and stood before her miko, eyes cast down to the floor. "Yui-sama… I'm… I'm sorry."   
Yui sighed with relief. "It's all right… it's not your fault at all."   
"Some of it is, and I'm sorry for it. After death, I had a few… lessons," she remarked ironically. "I think all of us did… Except Ashitare. I don't think he went to the same place, since he died an animal…"   
Yui smiled. "You've changed, you know."   
Amazingly, Soi smiled back - just a bit, but it was there. "So have you."   
"While I hate interrupting this touching reunion…" Nuriko drawled, breaking the serious atmosphere. Heads turned in his direction and many people began to smother laughter; he was sitting on Tasuki, who was bound head to foot and soundly gagged. And struggling with all his might, but apparently Nuriko's strength was in effect even when he was sitting; the bandit wasn't getting anywhere. "We _do_ have another to do."   
"Hai. Kadiri, can I have the book?" Miaka approached Kadiri with her hands outstretched. Kadiri placed the book in them, and Miaka pushed Kadiri's mouth shut with a grin. Kadiri hesitantly smiled back, then stood cautiously and walked over to talk to Yui and Soi. "Now, Hokusai, you saw what happened. We need to do the-"   
"Yui-sama!"   
Kadiri and Soi quickly caught Yui as she started to fall, her eyes closing and the rest of her body going limp. It seemed Miaka wasn't the only one who the initial summoning proved too much for.   
"Am I the only one getting a sense of déjà vu?" Nuriko inquired.   
"No, but not many of us were there, remember," Reijirou answered.   
"True."   
Mitsukake sighed, but he quickly revived Yui and gave no other option but she sit on the couch and rest; she wasn't as weak as Miaka had been, but she was still unstable. Yui reluctantly and with only a token protest agreed as her husband added his voice to the order. Miaka waited long enough to make sure her best friend was fine, then began running through the list of instructions with Hokusai, guiding him into a chair and arranging the book in his arms.   
With so many Suzaku seishi and seishi-incarnates present, there was very little risk to her health and the summoning seemed to go faster than ever. In no time the plume had grown, the final line had been shouted, and the familiar blue bangs were seen sticking up into the sky. The familiar kesa, kasa, even the shakuju were all there. The rings on the shakuju clinked together softly as the monk drifted to the floor, landing with almost cat-like agility.   
He opened his eyes to see, not shock, but a look of pure bliss on Hokusai's face. "M-My god… It's real! How cool!" Hokusai's voice was quiet, but diffused with what could only be described as overwhelming joy.   
"Nani no da?"   
"E… Everything! How awesome!"   
"He's a fiction writer, he thrives on this stuff," Miaka stage-whispered to the rest of the assembly.   
Chichiri was there, fully and completely. His fox-like mask even hid his face, turning his eyes into slits and his mouth into a line. Part of his hair stuck straight up in the air, while the rest was cut short around most of the rest of his head, only a tail left at the nape of his neck. His baggy white shirt and brown pants looked exactly like the ones in Miaka's photo. He reached up and removed the mask from his face, revealing the scar that claimed half his sight.   
There was more of a difference between Chichiri and Hokusai than anyone else, but it was plain to see that if slight "alterations" were made to one of them, they'd look more alike than any previous pair. Their hair was the same light blue, they had the same height and build, their eyes (or eye, in Chichiri's case) were the same warm brown. It was more than a bit surreal.   
Suddenly Chichiri grinned. "You know, this could be fun no da."   
"Oh yes," Hokusai agreed eagerly.   
"Chiri!" Miaka threw herself at the monk, unable to hold back any longer, and hugged him fiercely. Chichiri turned around and hugged her back, dropping his staff on the floor with a clatter of metal. More enthusiastic reunions with Nuriko, Taka, and Mitsukake followed, even though Nuriko refused to stand up or untie Tasuki, something Chichiri found very amusing.   
"So…" Tetsuya began when things had calmed down a little. "Who wants to explain everything to these two?"   
A silence fell over the room as everyone looked back and forth from person to person, trying to decide who would have the momentous task of trying to explain what all had happened in a half-sane way.   
Nuriko yawned very obviously, stretching luxuriously and not bothering to get off Tasuki, folding his hands casually behind his head. "Not me, thanks, my work here is done."   
  


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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: The I.I. is that my muse seems to have deserted me on my on-going stories (Market and this one). I haven't been able to write anything for them in awhile, and now (_especially_ on Market) I'm running out of pre-written chapters. So, since I don't want to force myself to write and end up producing bad material, I'm slowing down the posting pace to once a week regardless of which story I'm updating. Which means that posts for the stories will now come in two-week intervals, not one-week. Sorry, sorry, don't go after my head! But I flatly refuse to post bad things. I'll post any other sporadic stories (like "Characters," my newest one) as they come up, and you might wanna expect that with Market chapters soon. Being in school again is also cutting into my writing time, so I really am predicting that I'll run out of pre-written chapters on Market before I can get the rest of the story written. Sorry everyone, it's just the way things worked out.   
  
Ara-chan: *appears out of nowhere to grab Kaze-chan and hold a water pistol to her head* All right! No one move!   
Kaze-chan: What the _HELL_ are you doing?!   
Ara-chan: I'm taking him! No one can argue 'cause I'm holding the author hostage! *evil laugh*   
Kaze-chan: Not only do most of these people not know who you are, they do not know what you're talking about. I, however, happen to know that you are short, not strong enough to hold me back, and _very_ ticklish.   
Ara-chan: But I'm taking him! And you can't stop me!   
Kaze-chan: Watch me. ~to very befuddled readers~ Ara-chan's a friend of mine and has proclaimed herself not only the guardian and urge-to-write this story, but also the Official Glomper of Reijirou. Why I ever agreed to it I'll never know...   
Ara-chan: Because at the moment I was holding Subaru and Tokaki hostage.   
Kaze-chan: Yeah, but they could've easily gotten out of it.   
Ara-chan: No they couldn't!   
Kaze-chan: Yes they could!   
Ara-chan: Nuh-uh!   
Kaze-chan: Yuh-huh!   
Ara-chan: Nuh-uh!   
Kaze-chan: Yuh-huh!   
Ara-chan: Nuh-uh!   
Kaze-chan: Yuh-huh!   
Risako: You gonna split them up Reijie-chan?   
Reijirou: -.-;;;; Don't call me that! And I don't wanna die, Ara-chan is scary! Anyone wanna replace her? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase?   
Ara-chan: *drops the water pistol and sprints over to GLOMP Reijirou in a Perma-Glomp*   
Reijirou: O.O;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Someone help me PLEASE! 


	19. Chapter 19

  
DISCLAIMER: I own some J-pop. No, I don't own marketing rights and the like, I own a CD with J-pop on it. Still don't own FY.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: You know, dubs are an interesting thing.   
Take FY. There are some moments that are absolutely great in dubbing (i.e. when Chichiri's playing emperor, and is sitting on his head on the throne, and goes in the absolute greatest sing-song tone "This job gets pretty lonely and I'm stir crazy") and moments that are absoluely horrendous (i.e. Miaka's whole "I'll fight them" speech about the Seiryu after Suboshi kills Tamahome's family). On the whole it's all right, even though I definitely prefer the subs with what amounts essentially to a role-call of the Who's-Who Seiyuu from '95 (the year the anime first came out).   
Last night they started showing Inu-Yasha on Adult Swim - the dubbed version. Now, I'm an IY manga addict. I'd love to watch the anime, but I'm too poor to get fansubs shipped in and they haven't released it on DVD in the US yet, although with the dub on TV now they're probably going to. I was only able to catch the last five-ten minutes of it, but it was enough to formulate some opinions. Such as: Inu-Yasha's voice scared me at first, but it was all right once I got used to it. But why do they pronounce Kikyo "kee-kee-yo"? There's no extra "i" there. And poor Kagome's dub voice... I can understand being somewhat in dreamy shock, but there was almost no life in her voice. I'm withholding judgement on the dubbing as a whole for a few more episodes, though. And I'm very glad they didn't re-record the ending song in English - it's actually really cool in Japanese! It's by Dream!   
~grins~ Okay, musings over. Time to get to what y'all're actually interested in, I think: replies and stuff!   
Flying heart, I don't know why you didn't knowwwwwww! Maybe ff.n was being evil again?   
~laughs~ Kryssa, the way you describe Hokusai's reaction to Chiri is the best! You're better at these characters than I am! You're right, Hokusai _would_ have to have a lopsided grin and a joyful glint in his eyes (eyes! eyes! ^_^ Not eye for once!) because they're just so _him_. You are the Chichiri Girl (no offense to Roku-chan's sister!) for me ^_~   
Draconsis, glad you liked the cats ^_^ I love cats and I want a lot of them, so I decided to give someone a lot of cats ~firm nod~ If I ever get six cats I'm gonna name them those names - but of course, their coloring would have to match! Except for Sushi, I don't think I'd find a poor cat that was partially green.   
Lumi-chan... bad idea. ~snatches the Pocky and stashes it in a Safe Place~ Pocky is god!   
CLAMPraven, there's nothing wrong with being a fangirl! ^_~ But I'll keep that in mind.   
~grins at Keimei~ Yeah, the way the Gesshin thing is going so far, it's not gonna be a happy night for anything relatively small and flammable... Gesshin's nearly killed Tasuki twice, anyway. Ahh, the fun ^_^   
Evil Hunter, how much sugar do you eat a day?   
Elwing, you're back! I wondered what happened to you! BAD interent for dying on Elwing! Bad! I'm so glad you've caught up with everything and that you like what's going on! Hope you'll continue liking it!   
  


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"What is this place again?"   
"It's a used bookstore." Reijirou and Nuriko stood outside a small shop about a mile from Seinan in a distinctly "discount" area, decidedly shabby-looking but nonetheless giving off a comfortable feel. A faded sign in red paint above the door proclaimed the name to be "The Stacks". Hopefully they had what he was looking for.   
"Why are we here again?"   
Reijirou rolled his eyes. Nuriko was catching on to things more and more quickly, but he still didn't seem to understand the concept of classes and homework. Work-work he was fine with, but school… maybe never. At least he'd learned not to try and talk to him while he was sitting in lectures. "I need to find _a lot_ of books for Taka's class, and he said this place usually had most of them. So we're going in to find out."   
"Oh! I get it now," Nuriko replied with a cheerful grin. Somehow Reijirou doubted he did, but he let it go and pushed open the door, making a little bell tinkle.   
The inside was as comfortably shabby as the outside: dim, but with plenty of light to read by, free-standing shelves in the middle of the floor as well as pushed up against the walls. Every so often he could see a dust mote in the air in front of him. The carpet was worn in places but some color remained, and the walls and been painted an off-white that helped promote the light. No one was at the counter, but as he looked around he didn't mind: the shelves were divided into sections and genres and neatly labeled with things like "Biological Science," "Mystery," or "Manga." He resisted the temptation to stop at that set of shelves and continued past into the area that contained the non-fiction paperbacks, checking the list he held in his hand.   
"Ne, Reijirou, come here." Nuriko sounded surprised, but not shocked, and Reijirou casually looked up. The seishi was waving him over to look at something on the wall, something he'd passed right by but Nuriko had stopped to look at.   
"What is it?" He wandered back over, checking the shelves for the History section, and paused next to Nuriko. The seishi pointed at the wall, and interested expression on his face.   
There was a fairly large frame hanging there. A Polaroid photo was set in a dark green matte, and above it were the computer-printed words "Our First Customer" and below it a date. It looked pretty cheesy, but when he glanced at the photo his jaw nearly dropped. Keisuke and Tetsuya stood there, one on each side of a grinning college-age woman (who also looked kind of embarrassed) who was displaying some book with a red jacket and tiny type on the cover. He glanced upward briefly at the date; it was more than five years before.   
"So _that's_ why Taka said to come here…" He suddenly grinned. "Those three must be doing pretty good business: Taka tells his students to come here to buy books for his class, and they probably sell them back when they're done with them. All the while he gets to help out his brother-in-law and their best friend."   
Nuriko giggled. "Scandalous."   
"May I help you?"   
Reijirou whirled to see a boy, or young man (perhaps a year or so younger than himself), push his way out of the curtained-off doorway behind the counter that he assumed led to the back room, and broke into a grin: the boy was fully two inches shorter than him. It made him feel unnecessarily pleased. "Maybe… Do you have any of these?" He walked up to the counter and laid the list on the desk, positioned so the clerk could read it. "I need them for a class."   
He took one quick look at the paper and his face broke into a grin. "You're in Professor Sukunami's class, aren't you?"   
"I didn't think it was stamped on my forehead." Reijirou grinned also. "I guess you get a lot of us in here, then."   
"More than you'd believe. But so far this year you're the first. Which means you're lucky, I think we have almost all of these in now." He quickly knelt and began scanning something under the counter.   
Reijirou leaned forward until he was almost lying on his stomach on the counter in order to see the clerk. "You keep them back _there?_ Damn, you _must_ get us in here a lot…"   
"Yeah, I found it saved time." A book flew up to land with a _thunk_ on the countertop. "Somehow his students-" _Thunk._ "-keep coming to us and-" _Thunk._ "-asking for the same books." _Thunk thunk thunk thunk._ "This just made it easier." He stood up straight again, fully ten more books balanced in his arms. He blew his short-cut brown hair out of his eyes and let them drop on the table. "How many is that? Seventeen?"   
"Yeah… I think so. I'll have to find the others other places, then?"   
He nodded, hair bobbing up and down with the motion. "Gomen, we just don't have all of them. Most, yes, but we're not magicians."   
"No, no, this is fine. I didn't even expect this many." Reijirou began to make a stack of the books, looking for price stickers. "But I have one more thing I've gotta ask you to do."   
"What?"   
Reijirou grinned again. "Can you double this? I told one of my classmates I'd get her a set too, as long as I was gonna be here anyway."   
The clerk stared at him, wide-eyed. "Are you sure you can carry that many?"   
"Don't worry about it."   
"_SUZAKU!!!_" THUD THUD THUDTHUDTHUD CRAAAASSSHH.   
The floor shook beneath his feet and he dreaded turning around, a sinking suspicion as to what caused the commotion floating through his head. In front of him the clerk's mouth had dropped open in astonishment and he was staring off to Reijirou's left. Slowly, Reijirou turned around to see what had happened.   
As he suspected: the dust was slowly settling to land on a pure mess of books and shelves. Five of the free standing shelves had been knocked over in a domino effect, the first falling into the second and the second into the third and so on. The fifth couldn't reach far enough to hit the wall, and so landed flat on the floor. Books were everywhere, like a new carpet had been laid. The boy scrambled around the counter and rushed to the chaos, gaping like a fish out of water and stuttering about how could it have _happened_. Reijirou just kept his gaze (when the boy's back was turned) on the guilty-looking seishi standing barely a foot from where the first shelf had originally stood.   
"I didn't do it!" he cried.   
Reijirou rolled his eyes again and brushed past him, grasping the top of the first shelf and hauling slowly back on it, pulling it back to its standing position. The clerk got the idea and knocked the stray books out of where it was supposed to stand, and Reijirou could put it up again unhindered.   
"Thank you," the boy muttered, trying to gather books into piles and get them out of the way. "How in the hell could that happen? Those things are sturdy as rock!"   
Reijirou wisely chose not to answer that rhetorical question. "Don't mention it. Ne, can you move those?" He pointed to the random paperbacks that had landed where the second shelf was supposed to stand.   
"What? Oh! Sure." Together they made fast work of setting the store back to rights: Reijirou moved the shelves as the other pulled books out of the way. In just a couple minutes all five were upright and the books were knocked (or thrown) into general piles. The boy sat cross-legged on the floor to sort them back into their categories and started to protest when Reijirou also sat and began looking at titles, but Reijirou simply shut him up with a look and kept working. It would take the boy a long time to do it on his own, and he really didn't have anything better to do anyway.   
He waited until the boy was absorbed in his work to glare at Nuriko and make suitable gestures that meant "go outside", or at the very least "get away from the shelves". Nuriko tried to protest, but Reijirou kept glaring pointedly at him and he finally floated, pouting, out the door.   
As they worked a silence fell, one of light-hearted and resigned study as they focused on sorting for awhile. Reijirou was the slower of the two; he didn't work with the books, so he had no idea where some of the more confusing titles meant until he'd read the little jacket flap or back cover. The boy sorted with the speed of a professional librarian, as if he'd been doing it a long time.   
"Ne, what's you name?" Reijirou inquired as he puzzled over The Theory of Music - did that go in Arts or Psychology?   
"It's Tani Daisuke," he replied, grabbing the book and professionally flipping it at the Arts pile. "What about you?"   
"Enomoto Reijirou." A surprised and interested look crossed Daisuke's face. "What?"   
"Nothing much… just, do you know Yuki-san and Kajiwara-san?"   
Reijirou raised an eyebrow enquiringly. "Yeah, why?"   
Daisuke shook his head. "No, it's really nothing, they just mentioned your name a couple days ago. I didn't know you'd be walking in the store soon after."   
Reijirou grinned. "Must've been a shock."   
Daisuke gave a tentative grin of his own. "Not really, just unexpected. And wow, you must be _strong_. Those bookshelves aren't just sturdy as rock, they're _heavy_ as rock also. That's how Yuki-san and Kajiwara-san got 'em so cheap, no one else was willing to move them, even though they look good."   
Reijirou glanced back in mild surprise at the shelves. "Those weren't all _that_ heavy… More than I normally lift, yeah, but not that much of a strain."   
Daisuke whistled appreciatively. "You _must_ be strong then."   
"Anyway," Reijirou broke in, getting uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, "what grade are you in?"   
"I'm a senior in high school, going to college next year. Are you a college freshman?" He threw a new book in the direction of the Sports section. Reijirou nodded and also chucked one that way. "So… this'll sound odd, but maybe you could tell me what it took to get in?"   
Reijirou put down the book he was inspecting and gave Daisuke a strange look. He sure didn't seem like an idiot, but only an idiot wouldn't know what it took to get into college, since they bombard a student with the information from their first day of school in their _entire lives_. "I would've thought you knew already."   
Daisuke waved a hand in a dismissive way. "I know what they tell everyone, and of _course_ studying and good grades are important, but is there anything else? Some sort of secret ability the ones they accept have and the ones they reject don't have?"   
"You… You don't happen to believe in all that supernatural shit, do you?"   
"No, but their selection process perplexes me."   
Light bulb. Perplexes. Any normal person would've used confused, but not him. Which meant… "You're really smart, aren't you?"   
Daisuke grinned sheepishly. "Top of my class… in Jonan."   
"JONAN?! God, you'll have no problem going to Harvard in America if you want! My god…" He shook his head slowly, bewildered that the guy who could arguably be the smartest high school senior in the area would worry about getting into college. "With a full scholarship to boot." He shook his head again. "Look, you have nothing to worry about, I wasn't even in the top fourth of my class and they took me. You won't have _any problems at all_. Shit… Jonan…"   
"Calm down, it's not like it's anything big." Daisuke shifted uncomfortably.   
"Nothing big? Oh lord… All right, I'll shut up," he mumbled, catching the look Daisuke threw him.   
The silence this time was not nearly so comfortable.   
When they'd finished sorting the fallen books, Daisuke rang up his total and Reijirou forked over the money. He briefly wondered why Daisuke was bothering to work in a small, out of the way used bookstore, but money didn't grow on Sakura trees after all. It was also a very tactless question.   
When Daisuke once again asked if he could carry all the books, Reijirou smirked. He'd come prepared. He pulled several grocery bags out of his pockets and popped them open; none of the books were really big and he could fit several in each bag without worrying about the plastic breaking. Then he simply strung a couple of bags on each arm, said good bye, and walked out the door.   
Nuriko was standing on the sidewalk out front, starting idly at the building across the street. Reijirou waved a hand in front of his face to get his attention, and the seishi blinked at him. "Nani?"   
"What happened in there?"   
Nuriko shrugged carelessly. "Just got a surprise, that's all." He clearly wasn't going to say anything more on the topic.   
Reijirou shook his head. "Anything interesting happen out here?" The bus was going to be a few minutes in coming, they might as well talk while they waited.   
"Chichiri dropped by. He seems more sociable than anyone so far. Said he'd already been to Soi and Taka-chan and was going to Tasuki after that. Apparently Hokusai's still thrilled and is determined to find a way to work this into one of his books or whatever."   
"Anything else?"   
"No- Oh, yeah. I told him we'd found Chiriko."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"_WHAT?!?!_"   
"Funny, that was my reaction," Reijirou commented idly.   
Risako stared at the two of them with her mouth open in shock, the bags of books hanging by their handles from limp hands attached to limp arms. A pair of silver wire-framed reading glasses was threatening to fall off her face. Reijirou amusedly put out a hand and pushed them back up to sit on the bridge of her nose. "A-Are you _sure?_ Keisuke and Tetsuya wouldn't be such idiots that they'd ignore a seishi right under their noses!"   
"Remember, if they even saw Chiriko in the first place it was as a miniature thirteen-year-old. He's grown up a lot, and looks kind of different that much older." Nuriko grinned. "After all, it took _me_ a few minutes to recognize him, and I spent a lot of time with the kid. They simply didn't realize it."   
"Yeah, and when _you_ did, you made chaos explode."   
Nuriko glared sarcastically at Reijirou. "Next time let's see how YOU react when that happens. And it was an accident!"   
Hoshiko came out of the Daishis' kitchen, drying a plate with a dishtowel. "Keep your voices down, no need to shout. What was an accident?"   
"Nuriko knocking over five shelves and a mountain of books in the store," Reijirou replied easily. "He freaked when he recognized Chiriko."   
"Chiriko?" Hoshiko's voice became interested and sad all at the same time. "I remember Chiriko… He was a brave boy."   
Nuriko nodded. "He was. And now he's here again."   
"I think… I'd like to see him when he knows."   
"I'm sure you'll be able to. But right now we have to figure out how to 'enlighten' him." Reijirou pushed the still-stunned Risako into a chair and took one himself. "And Suezo. They're the only two Suzaku left. And there's Tomo and Miboshi to find also." He surpressed a shudder that threatened to run down his spine. He privately thought Miboshi was very creepy, based on what was on him in the book, but he deserved a warning like everyone else. "And Yui has to call them and the twins, then we have everyone. And then we've gotta figure out a way to stop the Wolf Man."   
"Yeah… man, we only have to find two? Then we're almost done…" Risako trailed off, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose again. "It sure doesn't seem like it should be that simple… after all, we started not even a week ago…"   
"Don't argue, dear. Consider it a matter of luck." Hoshiko leaned back through the doorway to deposit the plate and dishtowel on the kitchen counter, then joined them in the living area, taking her usual seat. "Hopefully, with a bit _more_ luck, this will all be over within another week. It took us nearly two months to deal with _our_ problem."   
Reijirou watched her closely, but she didn't elaborate further. They still hadn't gotten her to spill about what the reincarnated Byakko went through, or anything about the surrounding circumstances. When they asked, she just pressed her lips together and shook her head, wavy white hair shaking with the movement. Ryobe had been similarly tight-lipped. Speaking of Ryobe… "Ne, Risako, where's your father?"   
"Hmm? Oh, he's at the dojo."   
Reijirou blinked. "Dojo?"   
"Yes, Ryobe owns and runs a small dojo in downtown." Hoshiko smiled. "Remember who he used to be. A professional-quality fighter capable of teaching Tamahome even at a hundred years old. Kind of logical, ne?"   
It _did_ make sense when put in that light. "What do you do, then?"   
"I help him with the books and things, and keep him in line. I don't have to be up there much to do it though."   
"All right," Nuriko broke in, drifting over to sit on the couch, "how are we going to do this?"   
Risako blinked in confusion. "Do what?"   
"Daisuke, Suezo, the twins, and more." Nuriko waved his hand expressively to show the large scale-operation they were dealing with. "Miaka's part seems nearly over, but Yui's is just beginning. And the twins are going to be hard." He flashed Reijirou a quick, worried, "correct me if I'm wrong" look. "If I've figured this out right, in this world the twins are still considered children in a lot of ways. Everyone else so far has been fairly easy to deal with because they're adults and can be by themselves. But we might have to deal with those boys' parents." Reijirou nodded slightly at him, and he sighed quietly with relief. He really was getting good at sorting out the modern world.   
There was a pop of air and they all glanced up, not surprised, to see Chichiri standing there. His fox-like mask was smiling, but at the same time also looked excited and overwhelmed. "You two are good at throwing us for a loop no da. Everyone's in a frenzy about Chiriko na no da."   
Reijirou settled back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "You know, I don't know why we didn't think of this seishi-to-seishi communication before. I could've saved a fortune on phone bills." He smirked mildly in Nuriko's direction. The hospital phone bill had arrived the day before, and it was… too big for his parents to be willing to pay it. There went the funds for a new jacket… "I could've just sent _you_ to Miaka with a message every time we figured something out."   
Nuriko gave him a dirty look. "I would've thrown you into the wall if you'd ordered me around."   
"Can it you two," Risako ordered. Both reluctantly shut up. "What's everyone saying, Chiri?"   
Reijirou could almost see Chichiri's eye roll at the nickname Risako had immediately latched on to, but he chose to ignore the usage this time. "Miaka's gloating because Keisuke and Tetsuya are going crazy about how they had one _right there_ and missed him no da. Tasuki's ecstatic, Taka's smirking, and the Seos are trying to plan what to do next na no da."   
"We need to talk to them then, we thought of another problem." Hoshiko stood up and knocked some stray dust off her skirt. "The twins. We need to figure out a way to get them alone to explain all this and call their seishi." She began walking back towards the master bedroom. "Reijirou, I think that will have to be your job," she called back over her shoulder.   
"What the...? Why is it always my job?" he grumbled under his breath.   
She came back with a pile of clothes in her arms, giving him a sharp look. "I have better hearing than you seem to think. And it's because _you_ happen to be the one their family is familiar with. Meaning they would most likely trust you more than any of the rest of us." Out went Hoshiko with her laundry.   
"So what do you expect me to do about it?"   
"They're your brother's friends, ne?" Nuriko spoke up suddenly. Reijirou nodded. "So offer to take all three of them somewhere, and have someone else distract your brother long enough for us to do it."   
"Explaining it to _two_ of 'em? That'll take a LONG time to explain, I don't think anyone can distract my brother _that_ long." Reijirou sighed. "But it sounds like the best thing we're gonna think of… Short of breaking into their house or kidnapping them on the way to school, I can't think of another way to get 'em alone."   
"We sound like a bunch of perverted criminals," Risako muttered. "Getting them 'alone'. It can be taken in really sick ways." Suddenly her head snapped up in Reijirou's direction. "Does your brother like to read?"   
"Yeah, why?" he replied cautiously. Intense Risako could be strange.   
Thankfully, she grinned brightly. "That's it then!"   
"That's what then na no da?" Chichiri asked, also cautiously.   
"Take them to the bookstore! Gesshin or I can distract Hajime with a book, and he'll think Katai and Shirai just wandered off to look at other things!"   
Nuriko blinked, then slowly began to grin. "That might be just the thing…"   
"Definitely!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
After a quick bus ride back to the Enomoto apartment (Chiaki had completely refused to let him have the car for the next couple of days and had hidden the keys just to make her point), praying that Hajime would be there when they got back, Reijirou and Nuriko nearly sprinted up the stairs and exploded through the front door.   
"Whoa, son," his father said as the door banged sharply against the wall. "Where's the fire?"   
"Dad?" Reijirou was confused. Why was his father home so early? It was only - he glanced quickly at the clock on the wall - about four in the afternoon.   
"I got out early today, there wasn't much for me to do. And I'm going to enjoy my free time." Enomoto-san was standing behind the bar-counter that separated the kitchen from the dining area, sandwich makings spread in front of him. "Want a sandwich? Got almost anything you can ask for."   
"Uh, no thanks Dad." His dad was generally a cool person, but him being here would make it much less easy for them to corner Hajime. "Is anyone else here?"   
His father nodded, spreading mayonnaise on a piece of wheat bread. "Hajime and Chiaki are both studying in their rooms. Your mother went grocery shopping." He gave his son a significant look. "We seem to be going through food pretty fast recently."   
Nuriko smothered giggles as Reijirou turned slightly pink. "We are? Well, I'll just have to eat out more often then… I'm gonna go do my reading." He practically dashed down the hall to his room, Nuriko giggling unrepentantly as he followed.   
Reijirou threw the bags of books on his bed and quickly closed the door, leaning against it. "Man, how do you explain that your best friend from a former life came over with her daughter and _ate_ it all? And then Tasuki seems to be obsessed with our stuff…" Tasuki, it seemed, didn't use the possessing-capabilities to help Gesshin or to make things easier. He used them to eat basically everything under the sun. And as good food was expensive, the two of them frequently turned up on the Enomotos' doorstep at the oddest times, ready for anything Reijirou was willing to throw them.   
"I can see how it might be hard," Nuriko replied with an amused grin.   
Reijirou took a deep breath, held it for a couple seconds, then let it out slowly, trying to calm down. Better talk to Hajime now, while he had the chance. "I'll be right back, don't destroy anything while I'm gone." Nuriko saluted military-style, something he'd picked up from modern times, as Reijirou exited his room.   
Hajime's door was closed and the little "Do Not Disturb" sign he'd stolen from a hotel somewhere was hanging on the handle, but Reijirou knocked anyway. When Hajime heard what his brother was proposing, he'd forgive him for breaking his concentration.   
"Go _away_ Nee-chan, for the last time!"   
Reijirou rolled his eyes. "I really hope I'm not a 'Nee-chan.'"   
"Oh." After a couple of moments the door swung in, revealing Hajime with two pencils stuck behind his ears and a calculator in his hand. "It's you, Aniki. Gomen, Chiaki keeps trying to talk to me and I wanna get this homework _over_ with."   
"I don't blame you. Algebra again?" Hajime nodded sadly. "Well, don't ask me for help, it was never my strong point. Anyway, just one question and I'll let you get back to work."   
"What?"   
Reijirou grinned internally. _Begin countdown…_ "I was out trying to get some books I need for a class today and I found a used bookstore we've never been to." Hajime's face began to brighten significantly, green eyes getting wider. "I was thinking maybe sometime this week you and I could go check it out. They've got a lot of stuff there I've never seen before."   
"Really? COOL!"   
_Blastoff._ He grinned. _Now_ was the tricky part; he had to sound infinitely more casual, but not overdo it at the same time. "You can even bring a couple friends along. Maybe the Aizawa twins would like it."   
"I bet they would! Arigato gozaimasu Aniki! I'll call them after dinner, I think we're all free Wednesday afternoon, is that okay with you?"   
"Whoa, slow down. Yeah, that's fine." He grinned at the enthusiastic boy and deliberately ruffled his hair. "Just let me know, and make sure their parents give them permission to go."   
"I will!" The door closed sharply as Hajime practically danced back to his math homework. Reijirou couldn't help it; he began to laugh right in the middle of the hallway. The kid's single-minded determination was amazing, he'd probably get back to work on the math and do them all wrong without realizing it because he was too excited over finding a new bookstore.   
He calmed down sufficiently to walk normally and went back to his room, where he found Nuriko lying on his back on his bed and throwing a small ball up towards the ceiling. The seishi was definitely controlling his strength; the ball never touched the ceiling, and it didn't shoot up and down with an amazing amount of force. Reijirou left him to his activity, picked up the portable phone, and pulled a legal pad out of one of his desk drawers.   
The top page was covered with the names and corresponding phone numbers of everybody mixed up in this thing, from him at his apartment to the Seos at their house to the Obinatas at their hotel (where they'd taken an indefinite extended reservation). His number, as a matter of fact, was down twice, for both him and Gesshin. He quickly looked up Keisuke's number and dialed it, putting the phone to his ear and listening to the ringing on the other end of the line. The seishi-to-seishi communication he'd joked about earlier was definitely a good idea and great for spreading news among a large number of people very fast, but some things just required a telephone.   
The phone rang four times, and then there was a click. "Keisuke, it's Reijirou, I just got through-"   
"You have reached the residence of Yuki Keisuke," the answering machine said in a very tinny-sounding imitation of Keisuke's voice. "At the beep please leave your name, number (especially if you're a good-looking woman), and a passionate message about why you called, and I shall break down in tears before I call you back. Thank you!" _Beeeeeeep_.   
"Keisuke, before I say anything else, you need a girlfriend _desperately_. What _was_ that, especially if you're a good-looking-"   
There was another click. "Well, what do you expect? I get bored making plain old messages," Keisuke grumbled. "And I don't appreciate the comments on my social life, especially from someone more than ten years younger than me."   
"Hey, at least I've _been_ on dates."   
"With who? The school councilor?"   
"Anyway," he said firmly (play-fighting with Keisuke was fun but they had business to discuss), "I just talked to my brother and he's all set. He's going to call the twins and get them to go along also, on Wednesday afternoon."   
"Wednesday?" There was some shuffling on the other end of the line, as if he was shifting through papers. "Wednesday… Wednesday… Ah shit," he mumbled.   
"What is it now?"   
Keisuke sighed. "Daisuke's not working and he'll refuse to come in. Damnit, if we could just take care of the three of them at once it'd be so much easier."   
"Yeah, but we'll still take care of two of them. We need to call Yui and make sure she can be there, do you know if she has anything else scheduled?"   
"Iya, but Tetsuya would. I'll call him next." There was a minor thud but no cry of pain, so Reijirou resisted the temptation to laugh and tease him. "I still can't believe we've gone more than a _year_ not realizing-"   
"Reijirou-chan?" His door swung open suddenly. Nuriko sat up with a look of horror on his face and Reijirou clapped a hand over the bottom of the receiver, desperately hoping Nuriko had remembered to make himself invisible to Chiaki. The ball fell to his bed, straight through Nuriko but thankfully unnoticed by his sister. "I just talked to Hajime, you're taking him to a bookstore on Wednesday?"   
Reijirou nodded. "Yeah, and possibly his two friends as well. Couple of my friends might be going also."   
Chiaki grinned. "Good! Me and Suezo are going with you."   
_Thunk_. Nuriko and Reijirou's jaws both dropped. "N-Nani?"   
"We. Are. Going. With. You. Suezo needs a couple books for his Lit and English classes, and I need to see what they have in the science section so I can begin coming up with this experiment Ibi-sensei wants us to think of ourselves."   
Suezo, good. Chiaki, bad. "Are you sure it has to be Wednesday?"   
Chiaki looked at him closely. "Reijirou-chan, you're acting pretty strange. And if we don't go with you, how will we know where it is?"   
"Reijirou? What's going on?"   
"One moment Keisuke." He covered the receiver again. "All right, but I get the car."   
Chiaki rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah sure sure, whatever you want. We'll be here at four, just make sure that everyone else is, too. I'm gonna get back to my formulas." She ducked outside, forgetting to close the door.   
In somewhat of a stupor, Reijirou stood and let his hand slide off the phone. "Keisuke?"   
"Reijirou? What happened?"   
He walked over to the door, Nuriko watching him closely for signs of imminent collapse. He leaned dazedly against the door, which shut slowly beneath his weight. "Better make that three."   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Mwa ha ha ha ^_^ Yes, I am evil. If you didn't know that already, then make sure you don't forget it next time.   
Ara-chan: I think they all knew you were Evil, Kaze-chan.   
Kaze-chan: Well, just so they don't forget.   
Ara-chan: Dearie, just thinking of you is too much of a reminder.   
Kaze-chan: Now now now, be nice - or else.   
Ara-chan: Else what? I have Hoofie!   
Kaze-chan: And I have the power to make Reijirou completely, totally, absolutely petrified of you (not that he needs much more prodding)! You'll never see him again, mwa ha ha!   
Ara-chan: Uuuuuuhm! What I meant to say was, "Kaze-chan is the most wonderful, splendiferous evil person around!"   
Kaze-chan: Hmm... Give him to you or Risako... Tough decision...   
Ara-chan: *offers burnt offerings and virginal sacrifices*   
Kaze-chan: Um, okay, _**no**_.   
Ara-chan: Dangit. *offers a complete Fushigi set, complete with manga in Japanese and English and CDs. Throws in some Kenshin paraphenalia for good measure*   
Kaze-chan: ~wavers~ Welllllllllll...   
Risako: Take it! Take it!   
Reijirou: Hey, you're supposed to be _helping_ me!   
Ara-chan: *aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnd a Tokaki plushie and some Prismacolors?*   
Kaze-chan: Okay! ~glomps Pile O' Cool Stuff happily~   
Reijirou: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! 


	20. Chapter 20

  
DISCLAIMER:   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wheeeeeeewwwww... Long week. Long, hectic week. But I think a lot's gonna be better for me because of it. Things are much better with my fellow board members for one - it turns out a lot of people have been complaining to our sponser/teacher about how the others do things, and so she gave us all a collective talking-to on Friday. And it turns out I'm the only one there hasn't been a complaint against. Go me! I have people skills!   
I have no time to do replies today, sorry! But Mikka-chan, here're your twins! Have fun!   
NOTE I didn't have time to proofread either! O.O;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;   
  


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_Y'know, it really sucks having a brother five years younger than you and almost as tall… and his friends are taller than him!_ Reijirou thought to himself as the convertible whipped down the streets to Keisuke and Tetsuya's bookstore.   
_~ Neeee, don't complain, I'm shorter than you! ~   
Yeah, but that's DIFFERENT!   
~ How? ~_   
A hard elbow introduced itself to his ribs. "Na, Reijirou, ye're bein' really quiet t'day. Whatcha thinkin' about?"   
"The unfairness of genes."   
Gesshin looked at him blankly for a second, plainly not knowing what to make of that rather strange statement. Then he shrugged and settled back into his seat. "Whatever man. How much further t' this damn store?"   
"Not much." He flicked on his left turn signal, checking in the review mirror to be sure that Chiaki, Suezo, and Risako, following them in Suezo's car, caught it. He was rewarded with the sight of Suezo's blinker also flickering, nodded to himself, and made the turn. "Couple more streets. Hey, boys, we're almost there!" he called to the backseat.   
A cheer of joy went up in response. The three of them were having the time of their lives, driving too fast in an open convertible, and going to a (supposedly) cool bookstore. Without parents no less. The cacophony gradually settled down into what they were hoping to find there and how much they'd each finagled out of their parents to spend and if the "adults" might take them out for burgers or something later. Reijirou waited for it… "Aniki!" He knew it. "Aniki, after the bookstore, let's get something to eat! It's almost dinner time!"   
Reijirou threw Gesshin a sidelong look, barely concealing his amusement. Gesshin didn't even bother to try hiding it, giving him a fanged grin back, a deliberately Tasuki-like look plastered on his face. Reijirou could hardly stop himself from bursting out in laughter. "We'll ask the others once we get there, but I don't see any problem with it. You'll have to pay for your own food though." He had to yell the last sentence over the resumed cheering from the backseat.   
It was all getting together easier than he'd thought. The Aizawas had met him several times and so had no real problem with him taking their sons somewhere for the afternoon, even though a few people they _didn't_ know would probably be going as well. A time had been picked (four, just like Chiaki had commanded), the twins had come home from school with Hajime, everyone had gathered, and they were off.   
Risako originally wasn't going to come, as she didn't know Hajime (and therefore theoretically couldn't distract him as Gesshin could) but Gesshin was adamant about not being able to control both Hajime AND Chiaki, and anyway wouldn't they need him to help out with the summoning and everything? So Risako had reluctantly agreed to come along and take over Distraction Duty, as long as Tetsuya or Keisuke would help. She was trying to use the time in the car to find out more about Chiaki, and hopefully she would be able to do her job better.   
"Hope they're ready fer this…" Reijirou heard Gesshin mutter under his breath. He nodded a little in response, then made the final turn onto the street where the store was located and began to look for a parking spot.   
To his surprise, the street was not covered with cars, as the road outside the Seo household had been when they summoned Chichiri and Soi. There was only one that he thought he recognized, and one that looked slightly battered (but wasn't nearly as bad as the convertible) and he'd never seen before. Where was everyone else? After a second, he dismissed the thought from his mind. Fewer cars would help it look less like something unusual was going on, and the "uninitiated" would be less likely to suspect something. He parallel parked next to the sidewalk, behind the battered car, and turned off the engine as Suezo pulled in behind him.   
Before he could say a word, the three ninth-graders piled out of the car and onto the sidewalk. Reijirou, Gesshin, and Suezo (who was in the process of getting out of his car) could only stare in wonder as the three landed in a tangled heap on the concrete, worked themselves apart with much vocalizing, then sprinted inside like their heels were on fire. The street seemed strangely silent, even with the noise of traffic from the busy freeways nearby, after the door swung shut.   
There was a moment of quiet. "Well…" Suezo said suddenly, "glad to see that some of the youth of today still find books a good thing."   
Reijirou grinned back at him and swung out of the car at a slower pace than Hajime, Katai, and Shirai had taken, Gesshin scrambling after him. Chiaki emerged from Suezo's car, shaking her head, and Risako followed, laughing. "Let's not keep the poor boys waiting, shall we?" She calmly grabbed Gesshin by the shirt and dragged him inside, despite his protests about being strangled and the like.   
The interior of the store was just as comfortably shabby as it had been on Monday, except the area around the non-fiction standing shelves looked a lot cleaner. And neater. Reijirou resisted smirking as what was probably a warning ran though his head, courtesy of Nuriko. _~ Don't you say a word about that. ~   
I wasn't going to._   
"Reijirou! How are you?" The curtain behind the counter was pushed aside, and Tetsuya stepped out of the office, putting on his sunglasses. Reijirou briefly wondered if he had this obsession with his shades. "Risako, Gesshin, good to see you again."   
"Hi Tetsuya."   
"Yo."   
"Aniki…" Hajime was looking up from the sci fi novel he'd grabbed almost as soon as he ran in the store, with a look of confusion on his face. Behind him, Katai and Shirai were also looking at him strangely. "You know the owner? And you guys, too?" he inquired, looking at Gesshin and Risako.   
"Yeah, but I didn't know it when I came here. Guys, this is Kajiwara Tetsuya. Tetsuya, this is my sister Chiaki, my brother Hajime, Watari Suezo, and Aizawa Katai and Shirai." He made very sure to distinctly point to each twin as he named them so there would be no future confusions. The two were identical and almost impossible to tell apart, unless one knew them fairly well. The main difference was their style of dress, and Reijirou had made sure to key into the pattern as fast as possible.   
"Nice meeting you all. Ne, Reijirou, can I talk to you for a second? And you, Gesshin."   
_~ This is it. Let's get going. ~   
Yeah, let's get this over with._ "Sure Tetsuya. Come on man." He grabbed Gesshin's arm and pulled him away from his conversation with Risako, following in Tetsuya's wake. Tetsuya headed back through the curtain. Reijirou and Gesshin paused at the counter to glance back into the store. Suezo and Chiaki had wandered into the nonfiction section together and were peering at something on one of the shelves, their arms linked at the elbow. The three boys were each situated at some place in the fiction section, perusing a book with fairly single-minded intensity. Risako gave them a discreet thumbs-up from her place by the door, and turned her attention back to watching them. They nodded back and ducked behind the counter, pushing aside the curtain and walking into what was possibly the messiest room they'd ever seen.   
"Din' I jus' _leave_ my place?" Gesshin asked, stunned.   
It looked like a tornado had ripped through the office. Books were everywhere, littering the floor in an abstract pattern, some open, some closed, all old. Papers covered the double-sided desk so thickly that everything below them was obscured. There were a couple of bookshelves against one wall, and there was virtually nothing on them. Four dictionaries could be seen in various places, as well as several Japanese-to-various language books. There were even a couple of old scrolls.   
Tetsuya looked back from across the room, his hand on the knob of a door that wasn't apparent when confronted with the sheer volume of mess. "What? Oh, yeah. Yui's always after us to clean this place up, but somehow we never have the time."   
"What _is_ all this stuff?"   
"We also do a lot of translating, the shop itself doesn't end up making much money usually. That's most of what you see around here, various old or current projects." He waved a hand lazily to encompass the room, then turned the knob and swung the door open. "You coming or not?"   
They scrambled around the desk after him.   
The room the door opened onto was fairly large and had the distinct "warehouse" feel to it, even though the only things in there were a few boxes and a lot of chairs. Everyone was there, chatting easily in small groups: Miaka, Taka, Hokusai, Chichiri, Kadiri, Soi, Keisuke, Murai, Mitsukake, and Yui. Even Morin was there. Reijirou and Gesshin were both relieved to see her acting relaxed and friendly, talking with Mitsukake as if he were just another person. She'd been the worst to convince so far; if she was adapting well, then most or all of the others should also.   
A general call of greeting went up as they entered, and they waved back, bracing themselves for the separation from their seishi. Once again Nuriko and Tasuki fell out of them gracefully, recovering their wits after a moment and joining into the general uproar. Gesshin was immediately claimed by Kadiri to help prove a point in her debate with Hokusai, and Reijirou wandered up to Miaka's group.   
She turned and gave him a friendly hug as he stood next to her, which he returned. "Hi Reijirou. Where's Risako?"   
"Performing her keeper duties. Hi Yui, hey Keisuke."   
"Hey yourself. You two sure you're up for this today?" Keisuke glanced worriedly at his sister and their friend.   
"Ohhhh, Nii-chan! You can be so exasperating!" Miaka huffed and rolled her eyes. "Everything went fine when Chichiri came, didn't it? Then it'll be even _better_ now. You should only be worried about Yui-chan, she has TWO to do today."   
Yui smiled in a placating manner. "Daijobu. I'll be fine. Something might happen, but Mitsukake is here. If I feel _anything_ I'll let him know, all right?"   
"All right…" Keisuke still looked kind of tense, but he plainly knew better than to continue with the subject. Yui could be more stubborn than Miaka at certain times. And besides, she was right.   
"Well, I did my part. I got 'em here. Now you get to decide what to do with 'em." Reijirou grinned brightly. "What is the order of the day, anyway?"   
Miaka giggled. "I think we're going to try Suezo first, give your brother more time to get absorbed in his reading. And Hokusai and Morin have to go soon, anyway." She leaned over and stage-whispered in his ear. "They're going to a romantic dinner! And a movie!"   
Yui rolled her eyes. "Morin told us that in confidence, and this one goes and blabs it to anyone who walks in the door…"   
"Well it's not like it's something to be ashamed of! They're so cute together! Anyway, are we ready for it?" Miaka bounced eagerly on the balls of her feet, looking for all the world as if she were fifteen again, not a grown up, mature mother and wife of a professor. "Reijirou-chan, can you go get him since he knows you?"   
Reijirou grimaced at the nickname and silently wondered if she'd been conferring with Gesshin and/or Tasuki and/or Nuriko. But he chose to overlook it that time. "Sure, just keep the noise level down."   
"Oh, don't worry," Keisuke put in. "This thing's built to withstand earthquakes. Nice, thick walls."   
"And very thin doors." Reijirou grinned at the older man's eye-narrowing and made a quick escape.   
He picked his way through the office, trying not to step on anything that looked important, and pushed aside the curtain between the back and the counter. He looked around casually, taking note of everyone else's positions. Hajime had grabbed a corner with a rickety chair in it and was getting further and further into his alien-blasting adventures; not the _best_ literature in the world, but better than a lot of teenage boys. Shirai and Katai had found the used manga section and were each scanning various volumes for things they hadn't purchased for their collection. Risako was still near the door, where she could keep an eye open to her left and right at the same time. To his right Chiaki had found the science section and was leafing through an oversized paperback that looked something like a textbook. And beyond her… uh-oh.   
Reijirou quietly went around the counter and approached Risako, getting a bit more worried when no way he turned his head would produce the emperor-incarnate. "Ne," he whispered quietly when he was close enough for her to hear him, "where's Hotohori?"   
Risako grimaced and shook her head. "I don't know… he just said he'd be back in a few minutes and left in his car. He'll be back; your sister made him swear not to force all seven of us to stuff in your car."   
"Shit…" he breathed. "They wanted to call him first. Hokusai and Morin have to leave soon."   
"I don't see why it wouldn't work if they aren't here… maybe it's the proximity or something. Look, try to delay them, work with the twins for now, and when he gets back I'll put a leash on him."   
Reijirou grinned impishly. "If Chiaki'll let you. She might get jealous, after all."   
"Well what's she gonna do about it? Go after you or Gesshin in retaliation?" Risako also grinned, but a bit more wickedly.   
Reijirou shuddered. "Lord, I _hope_ not. All right, watch my siblings and I'll grab the twins." She nodded and he began to drift over in the Aizawas' direction, pretending to check out the shelves as he went.   
"Ne, look!" Shirai was exclaiming quietly to his brother as he got near. "Look! He's gonna slice that monster up into a thousand pieces-"   
"Hey you two." They spun to face him, the comic still dangling from Shirai's hand. Reijirou grinned when he saw the title. "That's a good one."   
"Yeah!"   
He reached over and casually plucked a magazine off the shelf. "If you like that, try this." Their eager hands grabbed for it, but he teasingly pulled it out of their reach - which was really hard, since they were barely shorter than he was. Damnit, he hated being small! But it was time to swing Operation Initiate into action… "Ne, Tetsuya found something back there he wants to show you, follow me."   
"All right!" They chorused together, something they did surprisingly rarely.   
"I'll get Hajime!" Katai took one step in that direction before Reijirou grabbed him by the back of his shirt.   
"He can see later, right now he's flying a spaceship through a black hole or something. We probably won't be able to wake him up 'til we have to go." Reijirou tugged Katai jokingly in the direction of the counter by his shirt for a few feet before letting go, Shirai grinning at his brother's displeased expression and squawk of protest.   
They filed through the curtain, the boys not being even slightly phased at the condition of the office (then again, they were typical teenage boys, Reijirou remembered). Reijirou braced himself slightly before setting his hand on the doorknob and turning it to the right, getting ready for whatever was coming up.   
Thirty eyes of various colors turned in their direction as the light from the office spilled into the semi-dim warehouse room, some perched in folding chairs or sturdy boxes, some still standing and towering over the sitting ones. He stepped to the side, letting the audience get a good look at just who came in after him.   
"Reijirou-san… who are all these people?" It was Katai; he typically sounded just a bit (but only a bit) more tremulous than his brother.   
"What's up with this?" Shirai spoke up for himself, sounding the slightest fraction defensive. Almost like Suboshi…   
One pair of blue eyes approached him: Kadiri. She glanced from him to the twins and back again, a confused expression on her face. "Where's Suezo?"   
He shrugged in response. "Risako said he had to go somewhere, but he'd be back. Chiaki's still here, in any case."   
She nodded, then inspected the twins contemplatively. She looked kind of weird, so Reijirou couldn't blame them when they began to back out of the door on some unspoken signal. But it had to happen, he didn't want THEIR deaths to be plaguing his mind like Adam's was. He put his strength to use and grabbed an arm of each and dragged them easily into the room, into the center of the gathering.   
Neither one of the boys knew what was going on, and they just kept turning and searching for a person who was _not_ staring them down. And was it just them, or did there seem to be more people in the room than there were a minute ago…?   
Reijirou wandered off to the side, letting someone else deal with this for once. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, looking in the group's direction but not really seeing it.   
His vision sharpened again when he noted an approaching figure. He took in light blue hair, wild bangs, and a long piece of wood before his mind put the picture together to equal Chichiri. He nodded, and the monk nodded back, resting against the wall next to him and letting his staff lay against his body. "Getting a bit tired of this no da?"   
"Not exactly getting tired… It's just…" He groped for words to try and explain himself. "It's kind of like… they're just kids. They're innocent. Why do they have to be mixed up in this? Why do we have to go after them like sharks?" He gestured at the others, who had the twins completely surrounded and were beginning the explanation. "I know they might not be prepared otherwise, but… it's like we're taking away something they'll never get back."   
He was surprised, to say the least, when Chichiri nodded in understanding. "I know no da. But, if you think about it, every one of you is like that. There's no real way you can go back to your normal lives after this na no da." He turned to regard the younger boy seriously, his unmasked face holding only traces of sadness and regret. "You would be dead if we didn't. Still… none of you will ever be normal again."   
  


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It was all going according to plan. Good. It was also incredibly boring, especially as she had nothing to do except keep an eye on "the uninitiated" (whoever'd picked that term would be getting a piece of her mind soon, it was really stupid. But they were stuck with it) and that didn't even take much concentration. Shortly after Reijirou had headed back with the boys Suezo had returned, toting a cardboard multi-cup holder, in whose pockets rested plenty of caffeine for all those over sixteen. Risako had taken the unexpected cappuccino gratefully and sipped slowly, holding Reijirou's as well and smiling into the rim when Suezo explained to Chiaki he'd just _had_ to have coffee.   
Not much else was going on. Hajime hadn't looked up once, displaying quite a single-minded focus and evidence of exactly WHY he liked bookstores in the first place: more various-quality sci-fi to read. Chiaki and Suezo had separated a bit, each looking for specifics in their majors they needed, would need, or might need. While Chiaki seemed to be locked into one certain book in particular though, Suezo would move back and forth along the shelves and casually pull one down, opening it and murmuring a few sentences to himself in English that Risako could only half-understand.   
She loved to listen to his voice, even if he wasn't exactly her type physically. She had a slight problem with dating guys who's hair was almost as long as hers, for one, although he definitely wasn't _un_attractive. His voice, though, now _that_ was amazing… deep and melodious and rich. Her ideal guy would have that voice. Yeah…   
Abruptly, Risako was snapped back to the present. The cloth hung in the doorway behind the counter was moving, being pushed aside by a moderate-sized hand, which was attached to an arm encased in a baggy gray sweatshirt. She dug around in her memory and decided it was Shirai; Katai had been sporting a T-shirt with the logo of one of the local baseball teams. She'd really been daydreaming for awhile if they were already coming out… they were, weren't they? The curtain had stopped while it still half-covered the door.   
It fluttered again, as if in a breeze, and not three but five people emerged: Tetsuya, surprisingly enough, followed four people who looked exactly alike.   
She had to work extremely hard to keep from staring. Except for the translucent nature of two of them, and the clothes that varied between all of them, all four were boys in their mid-teens with slightly-longish dark blond/light brown hair. As far as she could see, they all had the exact same shade of blue eyes as well. _This_ was going to be confusing….   
The two non-pale ones glanced back towards Tetsuya, a bit uncertainly, and he nodded minutely in response. With one last glance they began walking back in the direction of the fiction section, towards the Manga section, where the books and magazines they'd been inspecting still lay spread out. They each picked up one and began looking at it again, carefully turning the pages, trying to appear normal, but all too often their eyes would wander to their counterparts.   
Amiboshi and Suboshi, meanwhile, had stopped behind the counter and were looking around in awe, as nearly every seishi had done after they got over the slight shock of having been called, meeting their modern selves, and being reunited with their miko and any other seishi. Risako briefly wondered if there'd been any renewal of past grudges between the Suzaku and Seiryu this time, as there had been when Soi was called, and if the Seiryu twins would accidentally destroy anything modern. Nearly everyone had innocently wanted to inspect things, and had nearly broken them into little bits. Kadiri's computer still hadn't completely recovered. Her musings were cut off, though, when Tetsuya waved his hand in her line of vision. "Earth to Risako," he said softly.   
"Which one's which?" she murmured dazedly.   
He muted his laughter and surreptitiously pointed to the pale twin - or were they quadruplets now? - in the sort of purple robe-type thing. "That's Amiboshi." A bit of close peering picked out a simple wooden flute with some strings tied at the end shoved through his belt. Tetsuya then nodded to the one in the orange and blue, with two balls with feathers on the end tied to his own belt. "And that's Suboshi. Meet the Seiryu twins. And come down before I have to pinch you."   
She blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry… how'd it go?"   
"About as well as can be expected," he replied. Both of them unconsciously kept their voices low, trying to avoid anyone's hearing. "Yui's all right, although Mitsukake had to help her. No one attacked anyone else, although it was a near thing."   
"Tasuki again?"   
"Surprisingly, Taka. I guess his Tamahome memories overwhelmed him for a minute; in any case, it's good Nuriko was there."   
"Yeah." Risako was infinitely glad she hadn't seen the horrible scene in Tamahome's home, when he, Nuriko, and Miaka had gone to extend Hotohori's offer of shelter to his family. The pictures in her mind were bad enough, especially of little Yuiren. "I don't really think I can blame him…"   
"No one can, not even Soi or Amiboshi. But…" he held up a warning finger when she began to make another query, "in another unexpected turn, Suboshi begged his forgiveness."   
Jaw drop.   
"I'm serious." He shook his head slightly and grimaced, clearly conveying emotion even with his covered eyes. "Whatever the Seiryu went through after…wards, it must've been hell. But they're better for it."   
She whistled softly through her teeth, a habit she'd been trying to break but was too preoccupied at that moment to remember not to do it. "I wonder what Nakago-"   
"Yeah. Me too," Tetsuya cut her off. "I'm gonna go get Suezo. Hopefully we'll be done here soon." Risako nodded silently in agreement, and the older man worked his face into a light-hearted expression and approached his newest customer, who had moved into the Foreign Fiction section.   
Risako could hear them plainly from her perch by the door. "You're Suezo, aren't you? Reijirou was telling me you're majoring in English."   
Suezo gave him an easy smile, displaying the cover of the book currently in his hands - something she wouldn't've been able to read even if she was close enough. "I guess it sticks out. Is this one any good, do you know?"   
Tetsuya glanced down and seemed to take in the strange words in a heartbeat. "That one! Yeah, that's definitely a good one. Tolkein's a wonderful author. You just have to be careful with the names, even in English they're a mouthful."   
"Maybe I'll look up his others when I'm done with this, then." Suezo carefully laid it on the stack that was slowly forming in front of him.   
"I'd definitely suggest it. Listen, there's something in the back you might be interested in, wanna take a look?"   
"What is it?" Suezo gave the sunglasses a curious look as he began to gather up his selected books. "Can I pay for these?"   
Tetsuya waved blithely, hiding his anxiousness with the gesture. "We do a lot of translating here, too, as our second business. I can't really bring most of the stuff out on the floor, but you might like seeing some of the things we work on." Risako could plainly see the look of _Come on, agree already!_ Tetsuya was assuming in his stance, and privately wondered at how Suezo didn't.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The stack of books in his hand was thick, as it always was whenever he went in a bookstore. He just couldn't seem to stop buying books, on any number of subjects; they were definitely one of his vices. He always seemed to want to learn more, know more, understand more, and worked harder than those around him to accomplish it. He was smart, yes, but there were many smart people, and a lot were smarter than him. The difference between them and him was he seemed to _comprehend_ things better, to take the information and make it a permanent part of his memory. And books were just one more step on the way.   
That same sense that helped him in classes was now running full-gear. Something was definitely up. He'd left for his life-giving coffee, and when he'd returned the two young twins were nowhere to be seen and Risako-san hadn't moved at all. She hadn't moved since he'd gotten back, either, and seemed to be uninterested in the written material around her. Why did you go to a bookstore if you weren't going to look at books? It couldn't have been to keep Reijirou-san and Gesshin-san company; they were best friends and had been claimed by the owner - Tetsuya, wasn't it? - as soon as they'd set foot in the store. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen _them_ since then, either.   
But he'd put those curious questions aside and gotten to work scanning the shelves, being absorbed in looking for new titles he'd enjoy or could use in class. Reijirou-san had been right, this place _did_ have unusual titles - and a lot bigger Foreign Fiction section than normal. He'd gravitated there easily, looking at works by Grisham, King, and other popular American and British authors, choosing a couple that looked interesting. But then Tetsuya-san had come, and when he looked up he could see the twins again (although not Reijirou-san or Gesshin-san), and neither one was acting normal. Yes, something was _definitely_ going on.   
He was careful not to show it, but he could easily decipher the anxiousness that was lurking in Tetsuya's manner. Add that to the list of strange incidents he'd been noticing since he'd returned. The man plainly wanted him to agree. Whatever was going on was about to fall on his head.   
Against his better judgement, he decided to go. He could defend himself well enough to get away if there was something _that_ wrong in the back, even though all his senses told him he wouldn't need to fight. And he could probably get out of anything else. Maybe Tetsuya-san just wanted to ask him a question out of the others' hearing; it wasn't that far-fetched a theory. Whatever reason, he would have sworn that, if he wasn't trying to be discreet, Tetsuya-san would have sighed heavily and wiped his forehead with relief. "Come on, Suezo-san, it's right back here."  
  
"All right." Suezo collected his books, keeping a tight hold on them in the extremely off-chance that he'd need projectile weapons, and began following the older man behind the counter - the same place Reijirou-san and Gesshin-san had gone, he remembered as Tetsuya-san pushed aside the curtain.   
The sheer chaos of the office beyond arrested him for a long moment. How could anyone possibly _walk_ in there, much less _work?_ How could anyone _find_ anything when he or she wanted it? Tetsuya-san surpressed a laugh and steered him around the obstacle course like a professional race driver to a door in the opposite wall.   
Suezo pulled himself away from wondering at the sheer volume of mess to contemplate the door. "It's not in this room?"   
Tetsuya-san shook his head. "No, through here."   
Suezo took a better grip on his books and opened the door, stepping through.   
When his eyes adjusted, he nearly bolted once more. In that room were not only Reijirou-san and Gesshin-san, who he'd half-expected, but at least six other people. No, seven. No, eight. Yes, eight. He felt more than saw or heard Tetsuya close the door behind him and join the throng that was mostly staring him down; Reijirou-san was the only one of the eleven who wasn't watching him. There were four women, also. He had a strange feeling of déjà vu… had he seen one or most of these people before?   
In fact… most - or all, he couldn't tell which - of those people were giving him the same feeling he'd gotten from Reijirou-san, Chiaki, Gesshin-san… the same feeling he got from himself and had for as long as he could remember. They were different, those people…   
He stopped shrinking back against the door as he came to that realization, slowly standing upright and looking them straight in the eye, trying to find a clue as to _why_ they affected him this way, until one of the women came forward. She was petite, more than half a foot shorter than him, with long, wavy brown hair that fell down her back and large, expressive green eyes. From her, he was getting a stronger feeling than anyone. Her face plainly conveyed her anxiety and worry, and once she glanced back over her shoulder at a man just slightly shorter than him, but definitely older, with blue hair. He nodded quietly, as did the blonde woman next to him, and the brunette turned back to him, resolute once more. She took a step, then another, bringing her to within three feet of him. "Hotohori…"   
He started and blinked rapidly. Was she thinking he was someone else? Quick glances to his right and left showed him no one else who could be this "Hotohori" person, except Reijirou, who definitely was not named Hotohori. He looked back at her, confused, and surprised (to say the least) to see a smile dancing over her face. "I meant you. You're Hotohori."   
He looked once more to his right, where Reijirou was, the one person he even semi-knew in this gathering. Maybe this was the answer for his questions… "Am I?" he asked calmly, not sure if he wanted to believe it or not.   
Reijirou nodded grimly back, perfectly serious.   
That strange name… and those feelings… "Finally…"   
"Finally… what?"   
"I think I'm going to know why we… don't belong."   
  


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Risako shifted in the chair she'd finally claimed five minutes after Tetsuya had taken Suezo back, checking her watch for what had to be the hundred billionth time and finding not even a minute had passed since she _last_ checked it. She sighed and slumped forward, groaning slightly in annoyance. How long would they take? It had been twenty minutes all ready. Suezo must have taken it really hard, refused to believe, and they'd had to convince him, as they had everyone except… wait, strike that, everyone. Everyone had taken convincing. It was all too strange to be taken in immediately. Not that she could blame any of them. But couldn't they save on the time? It didn't take _that_ long to do a summoning, once the incarnate was convinced to try it…   
She stood and walked to the counter, bending over it to find a trash can and tossing her long-empty cappuccino cup into the bin. She performed another check as she returned to her seat: the twins had pried Hajime out of his book and were showing him manga (well, one was; they alternated watching Amiboshi and Suboshi, who were still looking around with interest, Amiboshi more than Suboshi), and Chiaki was engrossed in some biochemistry text or other. She eyed the books in the fiction section longingly; her own books were getting a bit tiring to read, as she'd read them repeatedly, some over many, many years. Maybe she was taking her job just a _little_ too seriously… Her mind made up, she stood up resolutely and walked in the direction of Katai, Shirai, and Hajime.   
She didn't make it.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The smoke was gone, Miaka was smiling widely, and Hotohori and Suezo were staring at each other as each seishi pair had before them. There always seemed to be needed a minute of Study-Each-Other time, and everyone respectfully kept their distance until the time was obviously over. Suezo wasn't as shocked as everyone before him had been; quite the contrary, he was watching Hotohori with as much interest as the former emperor was watching him, maybe even more. Miaka was all set to jump on Hotohori with a tight hug, when-   
"_RISAKO!!!!!!_"   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNN......   
I was gonna write a "suppliment" that dealt with the summonings and exactly what the hell went on with them, but I haven't had any time to do THAT either. Fortunately, I don't have so much writer's block any more! And I'm writing something ORIGINAL! Wow, what a concept, Kaze-chan and original. Who would've thought they'd go together?   
Well, I still wanna write that, because I -know- there'll be questions about the summoning, but I might not get a chance to. Just keep an eye out for it in case it happens to pop up - I'll post it directly behind this chapter. See ya! ~glomps all and poofs~ 


	21. Chapter 21

  
DISCLAIMER: Might've noticed that I forgot to put a disclaimer on the last chapter. Well, awhile ago, I said that any blank disclaimers should be taken as "Me no own". Any full disclaimers should be, as well. And this one's full!   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Why does my equipment always go screwy? ~moans~ Not fifteen minutes after I posted that REALLY wacked-out note, I do another test run in Word and _the freakin' thing's back to normal!!!!!!!!!_ Made me not-too-happy. I decided not to take the note down though, because I still wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to get to this before the weekend was out because of ACTs and essays and Crime and Punishment and the like. Well, guess I was; actually, I'm ignoring CaP for awhile so I can finish this.   
~grins~ Wow, you all are amazing! I can't believe I got threatened for that! And all the concern about Risako! My god, it's amazing, especially for an OC! ~is stunned and amused~ It makes my day, actually.   
Keimei - congrats! You have good intuition ~grins~ Especially with Suezo. Things probably aren't _quite_ the way you expected with him, but still, good job! I get into the explanation a bit in here, hope it makes sense.   
Kryssa - same as usual, watch your mail. And I realized that the bold/italics thing happened when I went back to check and make sure the upload went through . I put in the corrected version within five minutes, but obviously ff.n didn't immediately pick it up --;;;; Ahh well. Just happened because I didn't have time to go back and check the HTML over. I know better now.   
Skittles, PUT THAT THING AWAY! ~pulls out one of her array of computer-bashing things, ready to defend herself~ And I _ain't that good!_ But thanks for liking the chapter!   
~runs from yanagi_shuku~   
Elwing, I've got a question for ya... but I'll just write you at some point (when I get the chance --;;;;). Actually, I don't seem to do Hotohori-as-a-peripheral-character so well, so I'm never _quite_ comfortable when I write Suezo. I've gotta get in his head, as happened in last chapter. But I guess I'm doing _something_ right. ~grins~ You can have glomping rights on him, if you want. I think someone (~coughcoughKriscough~) already claimed 'Chiri... for _everything_. Although maaaaaaaaaaaybe I should pull a certain CS author in here to aggrivate her... ~grins~   
CLAMP... you've actually stumbled onto a touchy situation. Stay tuned.   
Umm, Chibigreen... armadillo? I'm lost ^^;;   
Stormlight, you _know_ I'm evil ~grins~ Why should this be any different? And there's more Suezo and Hotohori in this chapter. Hope that makes you happy ~grins~   
Draconsis, that's what I'm saying! Unfortunately I can't figure out any way to get them _in_! It's fairly unbelievable that they'd hang around with Reijirou and his group, after all, so it's haaaaard. But I have an idea.   
Lib-Chan, I dare because I care! Heheh. Hope your nails aren't as short as mine - which are so short, people look at them and go "Doesn't that _hurt?_" (And I am perfectly serious about that). And yeah, I'm over the writer's "mountain", but now I have no tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime! ~wails~   
Hotaru Tomoe, thank you! ~hugs~ I hope you still like this!   
Exie, you're as bad as I am! ~laughs helpessly~ Yeah, I wanna write that thing, to clear up some questions and get a detailed Seiryu summoning in, but as with everything else... Time. Time's my enemy. I need more hours in the day - and a father who'll listen to me.   
Yep Flying heart, the look on Risako's face when she sees the "quadruplets" is amusing ~grins~ I think I'd be doing the same thing in her shoes - no, wait, I'd go over to them and start poking them, trying to find differences that way ~laughs~ I think I'd be throttled by twin fangirls for that, though.   
And Kuruwa, I've actually had this chapter finished for awhile. It's just we're only getting to posting it now! ~grins brightly~ Have fun!   
  


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There was one moment of silence as everyone looked at each other, Chiaki's scream still echoing dully around the room. Then, led by Gesshin, who'd been nearest to the door, a wave of running feet pounded in the direction of the outer rooms-   
"_HOLD IT!_" Soi jumped in front of all of them, her arms held out and sparking blue that definitely looked threatening. The group stopped suddenly, watching her warily and expecting to be electrocuted at any second. "Everyone's scared, but you all can't go! Think of the explanations that'll come after seeing ten or so random people pouring out the door!"   
As much as anyone wanted to deny it, she was right. It was next to impossible for Chiaki and the others out there to ignore a sudden flood of humanity from a room they presumed to be mostly unoccupied. But they wanted to know what was going on!   
Then, just next to Soi, a slightly smaller figure flickered into view, a panicked expression on his face. "It's Risako-san!" Amiboshi gulped, plainly scared for her. "She passed out! On the floor! With no cause!"   
"All right, get out of the way Soi," Reijirou said determinedly. She was his friend; he wasn't staying back there any longer. "I'm going through."   
"An' me too." Gesshin nodded at Reijirou, and the two of them brushed past the Seiryu seishi and practically flew out the door, taking the mess in the office in two leaps each, then bursting through the curtain and nearly falling over the counter. As it was Reijirou _did_ hit the corner, hard; it buried itself into his stomach, making him double over it and gasp for the breath that had been driven out of his lungs. Gesshin scrambled around him and raced into the open. Reijirou saw him drop to his knees next to Risako, who lay face down on the floor, her hair scattered messily around her head. He quickly peeled himself off the counter and clambered over it, not wanting to waste time going around, and let himself fall next to Gesshin. Both boys were panting, wide-eyed, and staring.   
It just didn't seem _real_ somehow, that she'd be lying there for no reason, with no sign of life. Reijirou quickly reached out and turned her over easily, trying to be careful. Even her face was pale as marble. The only indication she was alive was the slight rise and fall of her chest, but that was vastly reduced.   
Chiaki, Hajime, Katai, and Shirai were all grouped on her other side, with Suboshi standing behind them, all of them watching her just as anxiously as Gesshin and Reijirou. "She…" Hajime began, shocked almost to silence. "She just… just _fell_… she was walking, and she just _fell_…"   
There was a pop from the side, and Suboshi jumped back in surprise; Mitsukake had just appeared at Risako's head. He took in the situation at a glance, remaining surprisingly calm, or at least no trace of surprise or panic passing over his face. He calmly put his left hand on Risako's forehead and closed his eyes, and the green light that was visible only to some began to filter through his fingers. The light quickly faded and he opened his eyes, a slight smile spreading over his face. "She'll be all right."   
Reijirou managed to restrain a huge sigh of relief and Gesshin ducked his head to hide his grateful grin; Katai and Shirai both recovered from their start from when he'd appeared and grinned as well. Chiaki and Hajime remained staring at the prone girl, unaware of any of it, but Suboshi spoke up. "Can you fix her?"   
Mitsukake nodded and again closed his eyes. Once more the green light dazzled them, but it lasted for much longer this time. It was almost, Reijirou thought to himself, as if he was doing it slowly to prevent any awkward question from Reijirou's siblings. Risako's breathing slowly became deeper, the color crept back into her face, one of her fingers twitched. Chiaki, who was holding that hand, gave a joyful shout at the twitch, and instantly everyone began to look more optimistic. Then her entire arm moved, though slowly, sliding itself out of Chiaki's grip. And, at last, her eyelids slowly rose, revealing her brown irises. She sat up, slowly, using her arms as leverage, looking around at them all. "What… hap…pened?"   
"I don't know… I just heard this _thud_ and then I turned around and you were on the floor…" Chiaki said mutely, still fairly stunned with the suddenness of it all. "You should go to the hospital."   
"No, no," Risako said, shaking her head as if to clear it. She looked around, moving carefully, managing to keep her reaction to seeing Mitsukake studying her hidden. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's… it's happened before. Don't worry…"   
"Better take her outside, she needs fresh air," Mitsukake instructed Reijirou quietly as Suboshi disappeared.   
Reijirou nodded imperceptibly and stood, taking a firm grip on both Risako's hands and pulling her to her feet as well. Everyone else rose as he did. "I'm taking you outside. Don't argue," he added sharply when Risako opened her mouth to protest. "It's way too stuffy in here."   
"Oh all _right_," she agreed reluctantly, making a face reminiscent of Naora. With Gesshin and Mitsukake following, Reijirou guided Risako out of the door, keeping a close eye on her in case she collapsed again. It was all they needed now.   
Gesshin gave the others one of his best fanged glares to keep them inside, then quickly shut the door, accidentally pushing it half through Mitsukake, whose eyes widened at having a solid piece of wood go through him unexpectedly. "All right, what'n th' hell was _that_ about?" The ever-eloquent seventeen-year-old asked, turning the fanged glare on Risako. "Does that shit _really_ happen t' ya a lot?"   
"No! It's never happened before!" Risako protested loudly. Reijirou was very grateful the bookstore was in a very infrequently visited area. There were still only a few cars up and down the street, parked next to the curbs, and the loudest sound besides their voices was the far-off freeway. "I've never just fainted! _That scares me you know!_" She yelled, almost panicked. "What if something's wrong with me?!"   
"There nothing wrong with you," Mitsukake broke in, effectively drawing all three's attention to him. Both he and Murai were normally very stoic yet friendly persons. Now he was starting to look threatening and irritated. His eyes narrowed at Risako, as if she were a specimen he was studying, and she gulped, suddenly feeling about five. "Or there shouldn't be. That shouldn't have happened."   
"Then why did it?" Reijirou asked, getting irritated as well.   
"I'm not sure. There's no explanation for it, but I when I examined her, her level of ki was much too low to keep her awake. It wasn't life threatening." He had to raise his deep voice over the protests, curses, and exclamations all of them were releasing. "But it wasn't enough to keep her conscious. This shouldn't have happened. It all vanished very fast, and I can't tell why."   
"You're joking, aren't you?" Risako asked, feeling slightly sick.   
He gave her a cross look. "When I'm joking, you'll know it."   
"Af'er all, this's _Mits_ we're talkin' to here," Gesshin drawled sarcastically, just the slightest bit annoyed. "He _never_ jokes."   
"I tackled Tasuki, I can tackle you. Shut it." Mitsukake looked at Risako seriously. "If that _ever_ happens to you again, I want you to tell me. You're a healthy person. We need to sort this out." Risako nodded feebly, still looking worried and feeling sick. Mitsukake smiled at her. "I don't think it will happen again; we just need to be sure. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a feeling everyone's clambering for answers." He disappeared, presumably to the storeroom.   
Gesshin awkwardly put an arm around Risako's shoulders, sort of hugging her sideways, with a very odd expression on his face, since he did that sort of thing rarely (if ever). "C'mon, Risako. It'll be a'right. Ya heard Mits, he said ye'll be fine."   
"Are you trying to convince her or yourself?" Reijirou asked, slightly amused, his sense of humor coming back as he began to relax.   
Gesshin quickly tore his arm off Risako's shoulders and charged Reijirou with no notice, giving the older boy no time to flee before he tackled him to the sidewalk. Reijirou let out a strangled yelp as he landed flat on his back, banging the back of his head on the concrete as his breath was forced out of his lungs yet again. But he was used to this (he had to be, after knowing Gesshin six years) and he recovered quickly, punching back and trying to shove him off in revenge. Risako just stood out of the way, shaking her head, as the two of them expressed their deepest feelings by cussing each other out at the top of their lungs and trying to kill each other at the same time.   
The door opened again, the little jingling bell tied with a piece of string to the inside handle giving off a discordant note to the shouting, and Chiaki peered out, no doubt drawn by the noise. She took in the situation at a glance and looked at Risako. "Not again."   
"I would think you'd be used to it."   
"I am, doesn't mean I don't get annoyed." Chiaki stepped out, carefully walked around the edge of the double-homicide-in-progress, and stared Risako directly in the face. "Are you sure you're all right?"   
Risako nodded at the slightly shorter girl, thankful for the concern but also wishing she could get away and find out how the summoning had gone. "Yeah… it's exasperating, but it's nothing new," she casually lied through her teeth. She didn't like it, but it was for Chiaki's own benefit, after all. "It's happened twice; it doesn't last long, and I'm fine afterwards. And the doctor said there's nothing wrong with me," she hastily added as she saw the purple-haired girl start to open her mouth again. The doctor really _had_ said that, after all… just not the doctor Chiaki was thinking of. Well, Risako would trust Mitsukake on things like this more than anyone, including Murai.   
"Ifyou're sure…" Chiaki continued to eye her closely, and Risako started to get nervous. Had she been able to see right through the story? But after a couple of moments Chiaki once again averted her hazel eyes to the brawl, and Risako sighed in relief. "Yeah, they're like this all the time," Chiaki commented, mistaking the sigh for one of exasperation. The older girl grinned wickedly. "Watch this." And before Risako could stop her, Chiaki had dived into the middle of the fight herself.   
Risako barely had time to get concerned for her safety (although she was sure the new Kourin could look out for herself) when the brawling stopped, and two figures lay sprawled on the concrete. They were no longer directing their vocal exclamations at each other, but rather at the petite figure that was standing straight up, one foot planted firmly on Reijirou's stomach and the other on Gesshin's, grinning evilly enough to give the redhead a run for his money.   
"GODDAMNIT YA FUCKIN' CRAZY CHICK, GETTOFFA ME!"   
"Say please!"   
"Chiaki, _just do it!_"   
"You didn't say pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase, Reijjie-chan!"   
"Damnit, don't _call_ me that!"   
Chiaki glanced back over her shoulder at Risako, still grinning and somehow maintaining both her balance and her control over the guys easily. "Males."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
After reassuring Hajime that Risako really was all right and giving both he and Chiaki time to get reabsorbed into their reading, Reijirou, Gesshin, Risako, Katai, and Shirai all crept, one by one (or two, in the twins' cases), back through the trashed office and into the storeroom. Amiboshi, Suboshi, and Mitsukake by then had had ample time to explain the situation to the others, but Risako was still pounced upon by Miaka, Yui, and Morin, each of whom felt her forehead and fussed over her until Risako had to break away by force. Thankfully that action proved to the three of them that yes, she was feeling perfectly fine, or Nuriko's strength might have been needed again.   
Once everyone had calmed down sufficiently, events picked up where they'd left off. Hotohori and Suezo had had, as Nuriko and Reijirou before them, a semi-emergency to deal with immediately after the summoning, and semi-emergencies seemed to promote an unusual level of familiarity. They were perfectly fine with each other. It showed in the way they sat comfortably next to each other on a dusty crate, conversing quietly, unconsciously assuming each other's posture - these two were more alike than perhaps any pair before them, from the length of their hair to the color of their eyes to the tones of their voices. They also had the same aura of unassuming power, of being completely in control of themselves and events around them. Really the biggest difference was that Suezo was more relaxed and informal than Hotohori, but no one could fault the former emperor for that: it was natural to him and suited him to a stitch, just as Suezo's more laid-back attitude was right for him.   
"So, what happens now?" Suezo asked casually, brushing his long hair out of his eyes.   
Surprisingly, it was Kadiri who spoke up. "I don't know about everyone else, but I want to know what you meant when you said that you knew why you didn't belong, or whatever the exact quote is." Her blunt attitude easily made her the most intimidating female in the room, but it also reminded them of something they'd forgotten in Suezo's barrage of enthusiastic questions about the book and the world in it immediately after he'd been informed of what he'd been. "Did you really know about all this?"   
Hotohori turned his politely puzzled glance to his modern counterpart. "You knew about Konan before this?"   
"Not exactly… I wouldn't say I 'knew' anything, I just had this… this idea. This feeling." Suezo shrugged uncomfortably, not exactly sure how to present this so he didn't sound like a crackpot lunatic. Although if he hadn't had that feeling, he would have thought all of _them_ were crazy earlier… "I've had it for as long as I can remember, even when I was a little kid. I'd just look around, and something would seem _wrong_. With the world, I mean. Then as I got older, I realize it wasn't anything wrong, just _different_. And that it wasn't the world that was different, it was me." He shrugged again, not sure he was doing a good job of explaining. "It wasn't anything _bad_-different, just different. And it wasn't all that big. I just got this feeling from myself, and occasionally from another person I'd meet as well - but no one else seemed aware of it, even the people with the same feeling."   
"Hey, maybe it's a form of the déjà vu we're all getting," Hokusai spoke up, looking thoughtful. "Just in a stronger form. It probably had to happen to at least one person."   
"Now you know why he's a writer," Morin teased from next to her husband. "Always coming up with explanations for everything."   
"But still, he might be right." Keisuke stood and began pacing casually, thinking out loud, fingering his chin and staring at the ceiling. "Reijirou, you said you got déjà vu when you met Taka and Miaka, and that was before Nuriko came." Reijirou only nodded, not wanting to break the older man's train of thought. "And everyone else has said the same thing since then." He was answered with a chorus of "yeah"s and "right"s and one "get on with it already" until Yui silenced her own husband by digging her elbow into his ribs. "Can anyone remember when they first met others? Did any of you feel déjà vu then?"   
There was a long silence while everyone sifted through their memories, searching for their first encounters with any of them.   
"Yeah…" Katai said after awhile. "When I first met Reijirou-san a couple of years ago, it felt like I'd seen him before somewhere."   
"And I remember Taka coming into the store once, and all I could think of was 'Did I know this guy at school or something?'" Kadiri added.   
Hokusai nodded. "And when I saw Miaka and Yui, even though it was only a few days ago… I just thought it was hearing so much about them from Morin-chan." The other women hid smiles as he wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders.   
"And of course when I met Miaka years ago, as Taka and not Tamahome… I got railroaded then." Taka's eyes were misted over as he looked into the past. "_That_ was déjà vu if I've ever had it."   
Keisuke nodded, grinning. "There we are. Even in this world everyone from the other shares a connection - perfect plot for a book, Hokusai." There was a slight round of laughter from the others.   
"I guess I just have it stronger then," Suezo continued as the laughter died down. "'Cause when I met Chiaki I could tell immediately she was one of _them_. Or of _we_, to get away from the science fiction clichés." Everyone except the seishi burst into laughter again, trying to explain it to poor Nuriko, Tasuki, Mitsukake, Soi, Amiboshi, Suboshi, and Hotohori at the same time. Chichiri actually got the joke; Hokusai seemed to be instructing him in a lot of modern literature and pop culture. In the end they just left the explanation to the monk while they got their laughter out of the way. Suezo grinned along with the rest of them, but picked up again pretty quickly, unknowingly displaying his talent for capturing audiences. "I always try to talk with others like me - sorry, us. We just started talking in class, and it ended up…"   
"Yeah, we know," Nuriko broke in, grinning.   
"So what really _does_ happen now?" Amiboshi spoke up, his blue eyes slightly overwhelmed.   
"We let you three get used to modern society, that's what," Tetsuya answered, "and let Hokusai and Morin get to their dinner."   
"Eeeeeeek!" Morin squeaked. Then she did a very convincing imitation of Nuriko as she sprinted for the back door, pulling her husband along behind her easily, leaving him to wave at the slightly stunned gathering they were leaving.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Reijirou! Over here!"   
"Neeeee, Reijirou! I'm open!"   
"Here! HERE! SHOOT IT HERE!"   
Reijirou easily dodged the flying body that was hurling at him, hooked the ball with his heel and kicked it back, quickly spinning and blasting it at Juzo. His friend was about ten feet behind him, with a much clearer shot at the goal. Juzo didn't waste any time: not even bothering to stop the ball, he simply ran up to it and blasted it into the goal, past Isamu, who dived worthlessly to stop it. Their team whooped and cheered as he brought them another goal closer to their opponents.   
"Nice shot, Juzo!" Reijirou called as he ran past, back to the other end of the field, as the ball once again was put back in play.   
"That wasn't a bad pass, either!" Juzo grinned back at him, looking eternally impish. "You've been practicing!"   
"Yeah, I have." As Juzo was one of Reijirou's oldest friends (they'd known each other since third grade), he knew that the one sport Reijirou usually sucked majorly at was soccer. He could run, he could kick a ball, but he couldn't seem to do both at the same time. He kept playing in their group's games, hoping to improve and not really minding if everyone laughed at him, just as long as they had fun. But he was privately determined to be good at it _some_ day, so he kept practicing, going to the small park near his house and just dribbling the ball for awhile. It was working - sort of.   
"Now all we gotta do is get you to do that on the run," Juzo teased as they backtracked to their end of the field as their team recovered the ball.   
"Ne, it's not my fault my feet wanna trip over it."   
"DUCK!"   
Reijirou wasn't stupid; he hit the ground as fast as possible. Juzo, who happened to be the best soccer player he knew, had decided to be mister sports-magazine and leap up in the air to slam the ball in for another goal. If Reijirou was still standing, he'd've gotten blasted in the forehead. Again Isamu dived and again it was worthless; the ball rolled off the very tips of his fingers and easily found the back of the net. More cheering and friendly insults flew across the field as Reijirou picked himself up.   
"All right, break!" Orinosuke yelled as Isamu picked the ball out of the net, grumbling. "Ten minutes all right?" Voices were again raised in shouts of agreement as the guys stumbled, weary but happily, off the field to their duffel bags tossed to the sides.   
_I am so glad we've got time off,_ Reijirou said to himself. _Everyone needs a day to relax._ He collapsed next to his bag and dug out his water bottle, opening the top with his teeth and gulping the liquid.   
It had been a fairly eventful week. Although they had been unable to find a suitable time to either talk to Daisuke or summon Chiriko, Team Seishi, as Hokusai had jokingly referred to their strange little group at one point (he regretted it a lot when the name stuck), had had their hands full dealing with the other seishi. Suezo had stolen the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho translation from Murai and was pouring over it at every opportunity, even in classes, and Hotohori seemed just as curious about the modern world. He was basically the equivalent of five Nurikos. And Amiboshi and Suboshi had discovered the joys of modern-day pranking, mostly owing to the fact that their reincarnations were a pair of young teenage boys, as they were themselves. The four of them threw the Aizawa household into confusion as a matter of routine now.   
It was, in fact, the 'boshi quadruplets (another term Hokusai had coined) who instituted the need for free time. They just didn't understand about school, and Katai and Shirai had gotten in some serious trouble because of their seishi counterparts the second day after they were called. So the seishi had been spending the days in small groups and pairs, tagging along with only one, or possibly two, of the modern reincarnations and seeing the world from different viewpoints. The people who actually lived in this world were understandably reluctant to have seishi randomly popping up all over the place, so a schedule had been established to almost everyone's satisfaction. Reijirou had only been followed twice so far, but he knew he couldn't take much of it. Controlling Nuriko alone had been bad enough; attempting to keep Nuriko, Tasuki, _and_ Soi contained took more energy than he'd ever had, let alone used.   
Fortunately Kadiri had rearranged the schedules at the store to give them both light work hours until this mess was over, so he had more free time than he would have otherwise. And when Juzo had called, wanting to know if he was up for a pick-up game after Taka's class (Juzo wasn't in the class, but he knew Reijirou was) he was able to accept with a clear conscience.   
Reijirou sprawled on the grass, the water bottle resting against his forehead in an attempt to cool himself off, watching the clouds scoot across the early April sky. In only days the cherry trees that were scattered around the park would burst into bloom, and just days after that they'd gently fall to their quiet deaths.   
Even that solitary thought made him slightly queasy; he'd managed to forget most of the pain of his encounter with Ashitare/Akihiko in the ensuing chaos, but it was always brought back by even the smallest reference to death. It wasn't large, mostly just a twitch of the corner of his mouth, a slight movement of his shoulder, and a shadow passing over his face only for a brief second. But to those of them who knew him well, it was immediately apparent. They remained respectfully quiet whenever it happened though, choosing not to cause him more pain by reliving it.   
In order to wrench his mind away from those morbid and depressing thoughts, he concentrated on figuring out what Nuriko might be doing right then. He was spending that particular day with Hotohori - which was another topic that made Reijirou slightly uncomfortable. Sure, _he_ wasn't like that… or was he? Was Nuriko _really_ like that? If Nuriko was, could he be?   
He groaned and stuffed his duffel bag under his head to act as a pillow, unable to change the course of his thoughts again. He's always thought he was a very tolerant person - it didn't matter to him what you did, as long as you didn't hurt anyone or break any major moral rules. But now that the question wasn't just about someone else, but was, in essence, about _him_… He was finding it a little difficult to be so pragmatic.   
Nuriko, as usual, had been able to sense the discomfort that had appeared in Reijirou when he had found out just _who_ Nuriko was tagging along with that day: Hotohori and Suezo. And despite Reijirou's best sidesteps and evasions, Nuriko had eventually forced him to sit down so they could get everything out.   
"All right, what's bothering you?"   
"_Nothing's_ bothering me Nuriko, for the seventy _billionth_ time!"   
Nuriko gave him an exasperated look, then sighed and shook his head. "You can't lie to me, you know. Just tell me already."   
"I can very well lie to you."   
"But I won't believe it."   
Reijirou growled in his throat, but didn't respond other than that. A silence descended, as it had so often before with the two of them, but this time it wasn't anywhere near as companionable or comfortable as it had been before. Nuriko just watched him, but Reijirou couldn't bring himself to meet his counterpart's brown eyes, and just stared at his feet and the floor. The uncomfortable silence extended. It seemed almost an eternity later, but it could only have been a minute or two, before Nuriko seemed to give up and stood from his place on the bed, getting ready to vanish.   
"I'm not-" Reijirou spoke up, startling even himself; he'd intended to leave it completely alone and hope it worked itself out.   
"You're not what?" Nuriko asked, sitting down again. His "body" still left no indention in the mattress or blankets. It was slightly creepy.   
"I'm not…" Reijirou couldn't find the words to express it on that track, so he switched topics. "How… How do you feel about Hotohori?"   
Nuriko blinked in confusion, but quickly realized what Reijirou was having problems with. In truth, he was surprised it hadn't come up earlier - it had, but not since Hotohori had been called, which was the time frame that mattered. "What do you think I feel about him?"   
"I don't know!" Reijirou sighed, feeling drained. "If I did, we wouldn't be sitting here now, would we?"   
"No, we wouldn't." Nuriko watched the new him for another couple of moments, trying to figure out just how to put this. He didn't want to scare Reijirou, or freak him out, but being blunt was probably the best option. "I'm going to start talking, and you're just going to listen, all right? If you have any questions you can ask me when I'm done, but I don't want to be interrupted in the middle of something."   
"All right, let's get on with it," Reijirou replied, mentally bracing himself.   
Nuriko remained silent for another moment, organizing his thoughts. Then he opened his mouth and the words just came pouring out. "I don't know either, to tell you the truth. I did love him, I really did, but when I died… I was separated from him, miles away, and I'd just started changing again… I never did get to find out what would have happened between us if we'd seen each other again, if we'd just be friends, or something more. And I've spent time with him before, when we were searching for Taka's memory globes, but somehow this topic never seemed to come up." He smiled ironically, and slightly bitterly. "We're definitely friends. We kind of have to be, after all we've been through. But I was - and still am - really good at hiding my emotions. Maybe I even hid them from myself… I guess we'll never know now."   
"But do you still feel _that way_ about him?" Reijirou couldn't help himself; the question just fell through his lips.   
Nuriko simply answered it, instead of chewing him out. "I always will, sort of. The whole 'first love' thing coming in again. But entirely?… I just don't know. I don't know how _he_ feels either, and that'll play a big part… He's a wonderful person, no one can deny it. But if I feel anything more than strong friendship… I guess we'll find out." He smiled again, almost wistfully. "You've gotta remember it's a novel concept for me to have friends in the first place.   
"Now, let's see why you asked that question," he continued before Reijirou could jump in. "I think I know why. I'm fairly sure I don't have _that_ much of an influence over you. You're your own person, as you've proved several times over. So just as this is my decision, you have your own to make. Just take the choice that will make you happy, and that's all you can do. That, and hope."   
Despite Nuriko's certainty that Reijirou was himself, and not merely the same person in a different time period, he was finding it slightly hard to believe. He _liked_ seeing girls. But what if he was _supposed_ to like guys? Would that mean his entire social life so far had been a lie?   
Something heavy landed on his stomach and he sat up swiftly, his water bottle flying as he shoved Juzo's duffel bag off him. His tall friend was standing over him, grinning and blocking the sun with his body. "Wake up baka, I've tried to get your attention four times now. Day's too nice to be wrapped in thought."   
Reijirou mock-growled and threw the duffel bag into Juzo's face, knocking him over in return. "Fair's fair."   
"Yeah yeah yeah. Here." Juzo unzipped the bag and pulled out a small box, wrapped in the comics section from the paper, and a photograph. "Sorry I missed your birthday, but I'm only a month late this time. Hope this makes up for it."   
Reijirou took the picture first and stared at it long and hard. It was of him and Juzo, when they were about in fourth or fifth grade, dressed in little baseball uniforms complete with caps, grinning like Cheshire cats. Juzo's right arm was over Reijirou's shoulders, and Reijirou's left arm was over Juzo's. Reijirou held a child-sized bat over his free shoulder, and Juzo's other hand was gripping a dirty baseball, proudly displaying it to the camera. It was incredibly familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.   
"It's from when our team won the city championship back in fourth grade. See? There's your father." Juzo pointed to the upper right corner of the photo, and sure enough, there was Enomoto-san. Or his legs, which were all were visible of him, as he'd literally been jumping up and down like a maniac after that game. "Go on, open the box. It won't kill you."   
Reijirou quickly shredded the newspaper, ignoring the cheap ink that came off on his fingers, and threw the trash in the general direction of his own bag. The box was simple and off-white, with no marks on it anywhere; he didn't spend much time inspecting it, but pried open the flimsy cardboard lid. A ball rolled onto his palm: the same ball that the Juzo in the photo was holding. "What the…?"   
"Figure I've had that thing 'bout long enough. We both won it that day, it's your turn to keep the ball. Why'd you stop playing?" Juzo looked at him inquisitively, which was a foreign emotion to his face if Reijirou'd ever seen one.   
"Track was better for me." Experimentally Reijirou tossed the ball in the air, fairly high. He easily caught it when it came down again. "More opportunity, and some other things."   
"Yeah, easier practice schedule and you didn't have to deal with the tyrant. Still, you shoulda kept up, you'd be one of the best."   
Reijirou threw the ball again. "I like where I am now."   
As the ball came down with a smack in his palm, he noticed a figure walking along the path next to the field, nose buried in a book. A very familiar book, as a matter of fact…   
He was up and sprinting across the soccer field before he knew what he was doing, closing in on the long dark red hair at fast speeds. "Why do you have that here?!" he hissed a bit breathlessly when he was close enough.   
The Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho translation went flying. "GAH! Reijirou!" Risako caught the book in a semi-dive, glaring at him. "Don't DO that to me!"   
"But why do you _have_ that?!"   
"I'm _reading_ it, dolt."   
"Hey, what's going on?" Unnoticed by either of them, Juzo had followed Reijirou on his unorthodox sprint, wondering what the hell was happening. He had the definite feeling that he was missing out on a big part of his friend's life.   
Risako quickly hid the book behind her back as Reijirou played cover-up. "Oh, nothing, just saw Risako here and came to say hi… Risako, this is Juzo, Juzo, this is Risako."   
"We've met. Weren't we in biology together?" Juzo inquired, switching his attention to the girl.   
Risako studied him for a second, unsure. "Yeah, I think we were… and don't you play soccer?"   
"You do too, if I remember right."   
Reijirou looked at Risako in surprise. "You play soccer? You never told me."   
"You never asked," she replied smugly.   
Juzo grinned. "Honestly bud, I'm surprised you didn't know. She was all over the place in high school."   
"What, you can't expect me to pay attention to _everything,_" Reijirou grumbled.   
"Hey, Risako-san, wanna play?"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Risako, no doubt about it, was _good_.   
Reijirou's group played a slightly unorthodox form of the game (tackling people was always encouraged), but her smaller size kept her from falling into the traps a lot of the guys had, and allowed her to weave through large groups without losing the ball. She was, comparably, as good as Juzo. Reijirou could only stand on the sidelines (Juzo had unquestioningly given Risako Reijirou's spot on their team) and watch, jaw slack, as she and Juzo came from behind and massacred the other team. Isamu and their friends on the opposition were scurrying everywhere like ants, but could do nothing against the sudden onslaught they were faced with.   
When the game was over everyone swarmed around Risako, asking when she'd showed up and demanding that she come back for the next match. At least six voices pre-claimed her for their team.   
"I'm not making _any_ promises," Risako yelled above the noise. "I've got work to do. But I'll see if I can."   
They had to be content with that. It was getting late, so the group began to break up, its members yelling good-byes to each other as they slowly separated and headed in the direction of wherever they were having dinner.   
Reijirou was finally able to reach Risako once the throng had dispersed a little. "You're _good!_"   
"It took awhile to get that way, lemme tell you." Risako grabbed Reijirou's towel and swiped it over her face, still trying to catch her breath. "You off duty today?"   
"Yeah, Nuriko's with Hotohori."   
"I wish Suezo luck then. I had Chichiri and the twins yesterday, and thank god Chiri can keep his head through all this, that's all I can say." Even though she wasn't a seishi, Risako had also volunteered to be a guide and lighten the burdens on the others. "Ne, wanna come to my place for dinner? My parents would love to see you again. I think we're having gyoza tonight."   
Reijirou shrugged. "Sure, I guess. Sounds better than warmed-over leftovers, which is probably all we've got."   
"Well you don't have to sound so enthusiastic," she teased.   
Reijirou rolled his eyes and gathered the rest of his things, stuffing them into his bag as they started walking in the direction of the Daishis' apartment. "You sure they won't mind me turning up like this?" He gestured to his gym-like attire and his sweaty hair. "I look like a mess."   
"Yeah, for once." She grinned. "They won't care, Dad might even lend you clothes. If you can fit into them."   
They ambled along, chatting easily about nothing much, the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho translation held tightly under Risako's arm. It wasn't far to the apartment, but it took them awhile to get around in the afternoon pedestrian traffic.   
Risako was obviously annoyed by the speed they were making. "Come on," she said, grabbing Reijirou's arm and pulling him behind her into a clean-looking alley. "It's a quick shortcut, we'll be home much faster." Reijirou didn't like the thought of alley traveling, but he kept his mouth shut when he saw they were well kept and there was no one around. And they _were_ making much better time than on the main street. He still kept half an eye out for trouble, though.As it turned out, a full eye might have been better.   
Risako was just assuring him that it was only about three blocks to her building when she gave a yelp of surprise and fell back to smash against the plaster exterior of the building they were walking next to. For a split second Reijirou thought she had simply tripped out of negligence, but her sudden river of curses and - especially - the hand gripping her upper arm punishingly told a completely different story.   
"You won't get away this time."   
  


*************************************************************************************

  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Okay, to clear up Reijirou's logic...   
Reijirou: "I'm Nuriko. Nuriko is me. Nuriko was definitely gay at one point [_his phrasing, not mine, I am of the "Nuriko loves based on personal worth, not gender" school of thought_]. Nuriko might still be gay. If he is gay, then since he is me, am I gay too? Should I like guys or girls? Have I been lying to myself this whole time? Should I be doing what I'm not and not what I am? Should I even be thinking about this? GAH! I'm so confused!"   
Hope that made it a little clearer ^_^   
Celebrate! I finished 25! Actually, I finished it on Monday, but still. And I know what I wanna do for 26. And I _finally_ know where Market's going. The only problem is finding the _time_ to do pleasure-writing. Sigh... Don't be too surprised to find me falling behind. The College Crush is full on me, and the only way I'm able to keep posting _now_ is because I have all these pre-written chapters. But I won't forget about you guys, I promise! You mean so much to me! ~hugs all~ Thank you so much for sticking with me through everything! 


	22. Chapter 22

  
DISCLAIMER: I am seriously running out of creative ideas on how to say "not mine."   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: First off.   
**SEE SPIRITED AWAY SEE SPIRITED AWAY SEE SPIRITED AWAY!** it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo **GOOD**! Even though it's a dub, it's still one of the best things I've ever seen! So good so good so good so good! I OFFICIALLY WORSHIP MIYAZAKI!   
Now that I am semi-sane again...   
Come on you all ~grins~ You KNOW I'm a cliffie addict and shamelessly employ them to get you to continue reading. Would I be Kaze-chan if I didn't? ~big, innocent eyes~   
Lib-Chan brought up a very good point. Yes, my site is veeeeeerrrrrrrrry far behind in updates. That's because I'm currently in the process of moving _everything_ to a new site, and using lai_nyan as a storage place for pictures. There's getting to be too many long, bulky text files and relatively large picture files for me to keep expanding. And I wanted a new layout anyway, so I just got a new Geocities site and put it up there, so the lai_nyan can continue existing until the new one is finished being built. Unfortunately, Real Life has killed my chances of getting a lot of work done on it - it's currently on the back-back-back-back-BACK burner, at least until November. I'll let you know when I get it done, and I'll be changing the addy on my profile page anyway, so keep a lookout.   
Okay, review responses!   
Stormlight, I'm glad you like Hotohori/Suezo! Unfortunately, there's just too many characters in this story to keep proper track of them all and give them major time in the spotlight if they don't interact with Reijirou on a regular basis, like Risako, Gesshin, and Kadiri do. I don't know how much you're going to see of Suezo, the twins, even Hokusai and Murai, for the rest of the story. It's all very iffy. Just keep your eyes open, and I hope you like it regardless. ^_^   
Zerianyu, is this soon enough for you? ^_~   
Skittles, you should know that I am impervious to Puppy Dog Eyes. Living with animals who beg for table scraps all your life tends to do that to you.   
CLAMP, you'll find out eventually, once I get the details sorted out. I've got more of an idea now than I did when I started, but I still want to revise some stuff. And remember, Reijirou is infinitely confused here. He doesn't know _what_ the hell he is. I know, and eventually he and you guys will know, but right now there's turmoil ^_~ Remember, don't make assumptions! I am devious and tricky! And when I refer to the College Crush, I mean the part of senior year in high school when you are taking college classes, filling out college applications, and doing three thousand extra curreicular activities - which is what's going on with me right now. After November begins I'll have more time, though.   
Kris, I'm a mountain climber! ^_^ Out of practice, it's true, but I like to tackle those rock walls! If I fall off, I'm gonna catch myself ^_~ Especially with you and Ara-chan around to kick my butt if I do. And you didn't even have to ask about Chiri - I'm not a certain WS author ~snicker~ I'm not signing my own death warrant. I'll knock it off about the "most alike," I promise. And yes, that was the confusion - sorry about the mix-up! I acctually suspected I sent the wrong thing, but there was no way to check it and you didn't say anything, so... I just assumed I did. Yeah, "assume" makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me," right? And I still wanna hear your theory! And you'll be getting mail from me soon (I hope ^^;;;;;)!   
Chibigreen... Eheheheh ~grins~ Don't worry about Nuriko not being there. And yes, that helps my confusion greatly. Another weird fact to add to my store of useless knowledge!   
Keimei, I must keep leaving cliffhangers because that's what I _do_. That's why cliffhangers are used, to keep you interested! ~grins~ And isn't it just so easy to see the four of them as mischeif-makers? I'm gonna let them cause more havoc later. And I'm definitely not anti-Nuri/Hori, it's just hard to determine what's right for _this_ story. S'ppose I won't know 'til I get there. ~grins~ We can all find out together!   
Lib-Chan, hope you saw the info 'bout the website up there, and hope it answers your question. And I'm very glad you (and everyone else) seem to think Reijirou's logic is normal, understandable, and right! It worried me so much when I was writing it! And of course it's gonna get worse, but it'll get better too ^_^   
Bashoooouuuuu... umm... you completely weirded me out with that O.O I'm having a straight-jacket on hand for the next time you're on MSN.   
Espeon, I WANT SWEETARTS!   
Elwing, you're welcome! Just don't hurt him too much, OK? ^_~ And how can one little cliffhanger kill you? It's not even as torturous as last time! ~cracks up~ He doesn't follow Risako around though! They just keep... running into each other. And viva la no-fingernail people!   
Draconsis, I honestly didn't plan it to be that soon! It just came out that way. And frustration, frustration ~grins~ I'm evil, ne?   
At the end of the chapter, there's a who's-who of people in this story (I meant to post it last time, but forgot!) Go check it out if you're confused about anyone!   
  


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"Damnit, _LET ME GO!_"   
"Shut up, bitch!" The voice was rough, as if the speaker was in the habit of swallowing gravel on a regular basis, and some of the sounds that were produced with it were nearly unintelligible. But it was clear enough to get the gist of what he was saying.   
Risako was plainly _not_ interested in doing what he said and began struggling and screaming at the top of her lungs, hoping that the noise would attract someone. But she had counted against the rush hour traffic, their fairly secluded area, and the definite personality of a crowded residential area - which more often than not had children producing screams of their own, in hopes of getting something they want. They were going to have to get out of this on their own.   
Reijirou only barely managed to hold himself back from rushing to the rescue like the hero in some serial drama - if he tried anything, he'd have to get through Risako, which would completely defeat the purpose of the rescue. Her gravel-voiced captor held her as a human shield, twisting her arms behind her in such a contorted way she couldn't yank them free, strong as she was.   
"You got lucky once, girl. You ain't got nothing around to save you now. Boss wants to see you. Special." The little bit of his face Reijirou could see twisted into a snarl as he gripped both of Risako's wrists in one overly-large hand and reached into his coat pocket. "And you ain't got a choice."   
There was a soft click, almost beneath notice. Risako's screams, which had been becoming more spasmodic as time passed and she tried to save breath, immediately stopped. She had never wished she could be more wrong than she was now in her entire life, but if that sound was what she thought it was…   
Reijirou, though, might have had it worse. He too heard the soft click, but he was in a position to see exactly what had made it: the gun the thug had pulled out of his pocket and was now pointing at Risako's back.   
"So you'n me, we're going nice and easy back to the boss. You hearing this babe? Come on, we're leaving." He began to step back, convinced she would follow unquestioningly, but Risako's feet seemed to grow roots into the concrete below them. Try as he might, he couldn't shift her more than an inch. "Damnit ya fucking bitch, you don't have a choice! Come on, _NOW!_"   
Risako looked, in the calmness born of sheer panic, at Reijirou, eyes wide. "Do I…" she whispered under the man's rants. "Do I have a gun at my back?"   
"Yes," he replied, just as quiet. The scene around him was in slow motion, his mind was on fast-forward: what could he do, what could he do, what could he possibly do in time to help her…   
Then Risako shifted the weight on her feet and rammed her entire body backwards, taking the thug off guard and bashing him into the wall, his body acting as a cushion to absorb the blast and protect her. He had gotten her just far enough away from the wall where that little maneuver had a good chance of hurting him - which it did. He yelled hoarsely, having no air in his lungs, and Risako wrenched out of his weakening grip, spun on the ball of her right foot, and gave him one hell of an uppercut.   
The punch lifted the thug off the ground and again slammed him into the wall, making him even more dazed. One more punch and a swift kick disabled him entirely, making him drop the gun, which skittered to a halt a few feet down the alley from Reijirou. Reijirou ran after it and picked it up carefully, by the very tips of his fingers, trying to keep as many fingerprints preserved as possible. This guy was going to be locked up. For a long time. In the dark. With the-   
"Reijirou! Help me here!" He glanced back and saw the fairly surreal image of Risako trying to drag the now-unconscious man down the alley towards him. "Gimme a break already, I'm still shaking!"   
"Where did you _learn_ that?" Before he went back to help her, he unzipped his duffel bag and dropped the gun inside, then scraped his fingers against the building next to him in a feeble attempt to get the residual _things_ from that gun off his skin.   
Risako dropped the man's arm and kicked him one more time in the ribs contemptibly, breathing loudly enough for him to hear her clearly but not hard enough to impair speech. "You forget who my father is."   
"Who your… Tokaki?"   
"Well, I guess you could say that. More importantly: Daishi Ryobe, owner-slash-master-slash-primary instructor of a successful karate dojo. With him and my mother around, and she could be an instructor herself if she wanted to be, you pick things up after awhile."   
Reijirou looked closely at Risako, certain he detected something… off. At first she seemed calm and collected, but he could see her hands shaking minutely, and she was very pale under the beginnings of her summer tan. She might sound completely confident, but she was badly shaken. _And it must have been even worse last time, when it was two to one and not one to two, and Ashitare was there first…_   
"Well? Are you going to help or not?"   
Reijirou squashed his questions and walked carefully over, keeping a wary eye on Risako for anything that was the matter, priming himself for anything that could possibly come. Nothing did, though. All that happened was Reijirou looped the strap of his duffel bag over his shoulder and across his chest so it banged at his side and took the man's other arm. Between them he and Risako managed to drape an arm over each of their shoulders and drag him down the alley. Although touching him was the very _last_ thing either of them wanted to do, they were both determined that this time he'd be put in jail. He wasn't going to bother them again.   
Risako never said so, but she recognized the man. He was one of the ones that had chased her outside the movie theatre, that had almost- No. She shook her head, trying to drive those thoughts away. Even simply brushing a hair against him was enough to give her the shakes. She was nearly paralyzed by her instinctive hate of him. But she refused to lose control of herself, knowing that if she did what she absolutely hated this time she would never have to see him again.   
What she didn't know was her thoughts were shown on her face. Reijirou kept one eye on the thug, ready to punch him out again if he started to wake, and the other on her. A shadowy curtain dropped over her features and her face compressed into an expression of disgust, worry, hate, anger, and pain. She stared forward but obviously wasn't looking at the scenery; her eyes seemed to focus into the past on something he could not see. But he still had a good idea what it was.   
"Risako…" he spoke in low tones. She blinked rapidly and shook her head, and took the next right without speaking. He sighed and kept in step with her, easily taking more than half the man's weight on his own shoulder to prevent from overburdening her, although he was fairly certain she'd clock him if she knew. They continued traveling in near silence, the only sounds the scrapes the man's feet made on the concrete. His head lolled back uselessly, but he was still alive; Risako hadn't been trying to kill him, merely put him out of commission. Still, he looked pretty disgusting: stark white scars peppering one side of his face, almost as if he was burned with acid, matted hair, grimy clothes. If he really was one of Akihiko's lackeys, he must have been pretty low on the power ladder.   
Risako guided them back to her apartment building, then gratefully dropped her portion of the man's weight and sprinted upstairs to call the police. For his part, Reijirou stayed downstairs, still hidden in the shadows, standing guard over the man with almost a snarl on his mouth. This guy was going to pay, and pay hard…   
He hadn't even realized time had passed (he was too focused on revenge to notice something as inconsequential as time) when a loud clattering and banging as the door to the parking lot burst open. Risako had tucked him and the unconscious thug in a very shadowy corner, which fortunately couldn't be seen, but unfortunately had no view of its own. He tensed, drawing back a fist, ready to let loose on anyone who might be after the thug, him, or Risako-   
"REIJIROU-KUN!"   
He deflated and let out a large sigh of relief as the echoes of Ryobe's voice faded from the parking lot. The man was _loud_. "Over here!"   
A figure rounded the corner at a dead run, white hair flying wildly in the wind from the speed. "What happened?! What's going on?!" Ryobe skidded to a halt in front of him, barely in time to prevent himself tripping over the unconscious man. "And who the hell is THIS?!"   
"Eh-heh…" _Oh boy. I'm gonna have to stop a murder here…_ "Well, that's probably what… Why are you down here?" he interrupted himself as he realized that A) he didn't know that important fact, B) he didn't know exactly what Ryobe knew, and C) it would delay him having to explain about everything.   
"I don't freakin' know, Risako just said to come down here and look for you. What's going on?" His voice had the absolute quality that all protective fathers' voices did, that of a steel blade with a razor-sharp edge.   
_Huh, maybe it WOULD be more entertaining to leave this shit to her father than turn him in…_ "We were walking back from the park and she got fed up with the pedestrian traffic, and so we… went through the alleys to get here."   
"And what has that got to do with anything?"   
"I'm getting to that. Everything was fine, but about three blocks from here this guy-" Reijirou prodded the man in the ribs with the toe of his sneaker "…appeared."   
Ryobe lowered his gaze to meet Reijirou's directly, his oddly shaped eyes narrowing even further, intimidating Reijirou more than anything had before. "When someone says 'appeared' in that tone you just used, something else went on they don't want anyone to know about. What was it?"   
"Ummmm… don't kill me, I did my best! He grabbed Risako. And put a gun to her back."   
"_WHAT?! HE DID WHAT TO MY DAUGHTER?!_"   
"Please sir, don't do anything-!"   
Ryobe, however, was clearly in no mood to listen to anything, yelling at the top of his lungs and diving for the thug. And as satisfying as it would have been to watch him throttle the crook, Reijirou knew it would only get him arrested. So he did what was probably the bravest and stupidest thing he'd ever done in his life.   
He jumped in Ryobe's flight path.   
Ryobe was a good half a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier than him, and he slammed into Reijirou with all the force of one of the cars on the crash test tracks that are shown in commercials everywhere. Reijirou could almost _hear_ each and every rib in his body snapping as Ryobe plowed into him, knocking him back in half a second and smashing him into the brick walls that formed the corner of the parking lot. Ryobe, his trajectory much thrown off by the unexpected obstacle, fell about five feet to the right of his intended target, rolling with a very loud "oomph" into some untended trash cans. Reijirou sank with a startled, mute gasp to the ground. And the man just lay there.   
Reijirou couldn't move. Even the thought of moving almost brought tears of agony to his eyes. His entire ribcage - and just about everything else - felt like one great spot of pain that was threatening to overwhelm his consciousness entirely. Even when he'd nearly been killed by Ashitare it hadn't been this bad. Then, the pain was sharp, fast, and quickly forgotten in the following traumatic events. Now it spread over him like a blanket, dulling even his hearing, pulling a colored filter over his eyes.   
There was a dull crunching nearby, but he couldn't even think of turning his head to the source without another layer being added to the blanket of pain encasing him. "Reijirou-kun?" The voice came from the same direction as the crunching - probably someone moving over gravel. "Reijirou-kun, are you all right?"   
He gritted his teeth and replied as briefly as he could. "No."   
"Oh _shit_. Byakko, gods, why'd you get in front of me like that?! Damnit, you stupid boy! Shit!" Despite his cursing, Ryobe was obviously very worried for him. There was a brief pause before more scrabbling and crunching could be heard, as if Ryobe was getting on his feet. "Just stay there, I'll be back in a minute."   
Reijirou really had to work to resist the temptation to throw out the biting comment that Ryobe didn't have to worry, he couldn't even move his pinky.   
The footsteps retreated quickly, if a little off-gait; Ryobe must have been hurt in the collision or the fall, as well. He sounded as if he was limping as he ran. But the sound faded gradually, leaving Reijirou alone with the pain.   
It was too much. It was just too overwhelming to take. He passed out, without much of a fight.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Consciousness returned slowly, in stages. First came low sounds, indistinct murmuring and vibrations that were impossible to tell apart. Then there seemed to be a dull glow under his eyelids, or some form of color. Finally came feel as a hand dropped to rest on his forehead.   
"He should be awake any second." What the…? His hearing must have been damaged, he could swear that was Murai. It was an odd enough idea that he had to check it out: he opened his eyes and glanced around.   
The color he had "seen" had been the normal glow of light bulbs through his eyelids. He was lying right under a hanging lamp, and the bulbs were strong enough to necessitate squinting. Turning his head away to spare his eyesight he saw Risako, Hoshiko, and Mitsukake gathered around him, watching him anxiously. Hoshiko took her hand off his forehead when he began to move, a relieved smile spreading over her face. "Oh good, you're awake! Try to sit up dear, Mitsukake healed you."   
Reijirou complied, easily swinging around into a normal sitting position. He'd been placed on the couch in the Daishis' living room, which looked both more and less welcoming after being accidentally crushed by the owner. "What happened?"   
Risako sighed as her mother shook her head. "After Dad called up and said he'd plowed into you, I called Murai. Mitsukake came right over and healed you."   
"I can't blame Ryobe for reacting angrily to hearing Risa-chan had been attacked, but he could have shown a little more common sense," Hoshiko sighed. "We're going to have a talk when he gets off guard duty."   
"Guard duty?" Reijirou turned to face her, confused.   
"Well you don't really think he was going to let that criminal get away, do you? He and Nuriko are down there, watching him and keeping him unconscious."   
"Nuriko?!"   
Mitsukake nodded. "Hai. I realized I didn't know where Risako lived, and I guessed that Nuriko would either feel something wrong with you or would want to know about it anyway, and so I went to him and asked him to… sort of be my guide. He was panicking when I got there, and we came immediately. And a good thing, too. Four ribs, your collarbone, and your arm broken, internal organs bruised, a lump the size of a rock on the back of your head-"   
"All right, all right, I get the picture." Reijirou grimaced and rubbed the back of his head, feeling for any remaining bruises or tender spots. Unsurprisingly, there weren't any; Mitsukake always did a thorough job. "But why are you lecturing _me?_ Ryobe-san's the one that did this!"   
"To remind you what happens when you play hero. Think next time."   
"Hey, I _did_ think. Ryobe-san would've killed that guy and that would've only gotten him arrested." Reijirou started to get up, but one solid and one ghostly hand prevented his movement as Hoshiko and Mitsukake forced him to stay on the couch. "Aww, lemme go!"   
"If you start acting like you're five, I'll start treating you like you're five," Hoshiko cautioned. "Stay there. Rest. Recuperate."   
Risako, meanwhile, had taken a seat in one of the chairs and was watching with one eyebrow quirked in amusement. "Speaking of arrests," she said, talking loudly to be heard over Reijirou's protests that he didn't need a second mother, "the police should be here any moment. It's only been about five minutes since Dad got you."   
"That short?" Reijirou stopped fighting Hoshiko to stare at Risako, and shook his head. "Why am I not surprised? Is Ryobe-san okay?"   
Mitsukake's eyes rolled in their sockets as the tall healer shook his head in exasperation. "Hai. I helped him first, because he required less energy. He only minorly twisted his leg in the fall. But I let him have a piece of my mind."   
"Mitsukake blew up!" Risako explained gleefully as Reijirou stared at the healer in pure shock, not believing that he was even _capable_ of getting angry. "It was great! It was just like Dad was a little boy who did something bad and was getting told off by the teacher! And he still has Mom to look forward to!"   
One look at Hoshiko told Reijirou that the worst part of the deal might still be coming Ryobe's way.   
The doorbell rang, prompting everyone to turn and face the source of the noise, even Mitsukake. He was adapting very well to modern inventions, unlike certain purple-haired seishi who persisted in reacting in strange ways to things like stoplights… Hoshiko quickly crossed the room and opened the door, but neither Reijirou, Risako, nor Mitsukake could see who or what was on the other side. "May I help you?"   
"Yes, we're here in response to a call," replied a somewhat familiar-sounding voice. There was a pause and the rustling of clothing, and then Hoshiko nodded and opened the door to its fullest, letting in two people - a small woman who nonetheless appeared rock-solid and a man not much taller than her, with a jovial expression to his face.   
"Now how many times are we going to be responding to calls from you two?" Sargent Owake grinned, taking off her cap as she kicked off her shoes.   
"Yeah, they're funneling your calls straight to our desks now," Officer Fujimara added as his shoes joined his partner's. "You two certainly seem to attract your share of trouble."   
Reijirou grumbled under his breath about it not being _their_ choice. Risako threw him a warning look and stood, shaking their hands. "Sorry for bothering you again, but we have someone you really need to arrest."   
"Yeah, we saw him downstairs. Your old man looked like he'd be all too happy to take his head off his shoulders." Owake pulled out her same old notepad and a ballpoint pen, clicking the latter and getting poised to take notes. "Okay, you know the drill. From the top."   
Risako nodded and launched into the story of the walk home, with Reijirou breaking in every once in awhile to add a detail she'd forgotten, as Hoshiko sat down next to her daughter and Mitsukake bent, unnoticed by the officers, over the back of the chair to inspect Owake's pad. It didn't take long to tell about meeting at the park, the start of the trip back, and the appearance of the thug. However, she did leave one thing out. "…And I don't know why he did that, maybe he wanted to rob me. But then he pulled out a gun and pointed it at me, and of course I was scared Mom," she added almost sarcastically, giving her mother a warning look, "but I was pretty pissed by then also. My dad taught me some kendo and judo and some other things, so I took him by surprise and disarmed him."   
"You did more than that, you beat him up pretty thoroughly," Reijirou pointed out. "She was the entire reason why we could bring him back here and wait for you to come and arrest him. And- where'd my duffel bag go?"   
"I've got it, give me a minute." Hoshiko stood and walked quickly into the kitchen.   
"His gun's in my bag. Sorry, I had to touch it, so my prints will be on it too, but not much. I tried to only use the tips of my fingers." The bag was dropped into his lap and he unzipped it as Hoshiko resumed her seat. "It's in here somewhere."   
Owake nodded at Fujimara. The officer dug a rubber glove out of his pocket and pulled it on his hand, taking Reijirou's bag and setting it on the floor. He reached in and dug around for a moment, concentrating, before a frown crossed his face and he pulled out the crook's weapon. He took one cursory glance at it. ".35 millimeter anyone-can-buy-one type. Not wiped. Probably doesn't have the license on him." He peered closely at the handle, running one gloved finger over a series of scratches. "Number's been filed off." He set it down for a minute and extracted and donned another glove, then picked the gun up in both hands and pulled out the clip. "It's loaded." Hoshiko put an arm protectively around Risako's shoulders as Owake handed Fujimara a plastic bag. He dropped the gun inside without replacing the clip, then dropped the clip in a separate bag before looking at Reijirou and Risako. "How do you guys get so many weapon-wielders after you?"   
"Daishi-san, do you think you could give us some time alone with your daughter and Enomoto-san? Please." It wasn't a request; Owake was giving Hoshiko a direct order.   
But the older woman wasn't about to give up without a fight. Hoshiko had definitely inherited Subaru's stubbornness. "Whatever you have to say to them you can say in front of me, I'm not made of glass."   
"Now, Daishi-san. I don't want to have to ask again."   
The two of them locked eyes in silent battle, neither willing to fold. Tension increased as the stare-down continued, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Then, barely noticed by anyone but Mitsukake, there was a very brief, dull, muted flash of light from the region of Hoshiko's chest, and she closed her eyes as she crossed her arms, quick enough to hide the last of the flash. "Very well. I think I'll go see how my husband is doing." Then she whirled, not giving anyone a chance to speak, blue eyes flashing, and marched out the door.   
"She hasn't changed," Mitsukake murmured.   
No one else said anything for a minute, until Officer Fujimara somehow managed to open his mouth. "I think… I'm glad I'm not married to her…"   
"Yeah, I don't envy Ryobe-san…" Reijirou agreed.   
"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet," Risako piped up, not even bothering to hide her grin that had come out in full after the shock had worn off. "That was nothing for her. Her worst ever was when I was eight and she went out with a group of friends, and Dad took me to the movies and let me eat all the candy I wanted and stay up 'til one in the morning. Lord, she was maaaaaaad…"   
"I bet. Look kids," Owake said determinedly, dropping her notepad on the coffee table and giving both of them a meaningful look. Her entire demeanor had changed in a matter of nanoseconds; she was once again the tough, put-together cop - tougher than they'd ever seen her. "We're not gonna play games here. Something is up, and we want to know what."   
"W-What do you mean?" Risako stammered, blinking in surprise.   
"To quote a good friend of ours, 'once is luck, twice is a coincidence, three times is a conspiracy.' In the past few weeks alone we've run into you or've been called by you three times." Fujimara held up a hand, three fingers extended. He folded his fingers down again as he counted off the circumstances. "One: when Sukunami-san was mugged in the park. That really was luck, but it set the precedent, as you all were the ones who called us. Two: when Reijirou-san here was attacked." Fujimara gave him a sharp look on "attacked," a look so unlike his normal friendly one that Reijirou flinched away. "And I still don't think we have all the facts on that yet. Third: today. This time Risako-san was attacked, but she was with you the other time and you were with her today."   
"To be blunt kids, we smell a rat. Something's going on that's just not right, and we want to know what it is. Normal people normally don't run into trouble three times in three weeks." Owake gave them both a look to match her partner's, violet eyes flashing as dangerously as Hoshiko's had earlier. "We're giving you a chance to come clean and tell us what's up. If you don't, we'll be forced to find out for ourselves."   
Reijirou and Risako threw each other panicked looks. This was beyond any bad dream they'd ever had. They couldn't tell the police about Ashitare and the seishi, they'd be locked in a mental institution faster than it took to say the word crazy!   
"Don't tell them anything," Mitsukake whispered from behind them. "Just do your best, it'll be all right." He placed a reassuring, ghostly hand on each of their shoulders, giving them support.   
But they still didn't know what to say. "Do you… Can you step outside for a minute?" Reijirou asked, feeling helpless and almost panicked.   
"No. Tell us now. The truth, all of it. And don't leave anything out." Fujimara's tone accepted no refusals.   
"Uhh… umm… We're secret crime fighters who spend our days working to stop mass murderers?" Reijirou said hopefully.   
"Nice try. Tell us another one, we've got all day." Fujimara propped his feet on the coffee table and reclined against the back of his chair, looking very comfortable.   
"Oh lord…" Risako muttered under her breath.   
Then they were saved by the bell.   
Saved by the squawk, actually. Owake's shoulder radio chose that moment to let out a particularly loud static eruption, making everyone wince, even Mitsukake. She growled with frustration and grabbed at the radio, holding down the little button and _screaming_ into the mic. "_WHAT?!_"   
"Robbery in progress! You're the closest unit! The bank at 1692 Tamakazu! All units being called!"   
"DAMNIT. We're not through kids." Owake and Fujimara shot to their feet and hurriedly grabbed their hats, their notepads, their pens, and the bags with the gun and clip, all in less than three seconds and without knocking each other over. "We're taking that guy, but you're gonna have to come down later to press charges. And don't go anywhere far until we get all this sorted out." With one last warning look, the officers pulled open the door, dashed out, and raced down the hall. The door slammed shut in their wake.   
"Now _that's_ what I call a close call," Reijirou breathed in their wake, feeling the tension seeping out of his body and leaving him limp as a rag doll. "God, how would we have gotten out of _that?_"   
"Well…" Reijirou turned just in time to see Risako turn as red as her hair and duck her head to try and hide it. "Umm… I was… umm… I was going to say…"   
"What Risako?"   
"Umm… Iwasgoingtosaythatwehadbeengoingouttogetherbehindourfamilies'backs but I didn't!"   
"You… You what?" Had he heard right? He could have sworn she said that she was going to say they had been going out behind their families' backs, but that couldn't have been it.   
Mitsukake broke in with an unexpected smirk. "She was going to say you two had been dating. And didn't want your families to know."   
"WHAT?! WHY would you say that?!" he yelled, jumping out of his seat.   
"It was the first thing that popped into my head! Hey, at least it would explain why we were always together!" She jerked her head up to glare at him, still red.   
"But we weren't always together!"   
"Yeah, but _they_ think we were! Look, I didn't say it, let's just drop the subject already."   
Reijirou sighed and slumped in the chair again. Things were getting way too confusing. He needed a day planner installed in his brain or something along those lines just to keep track of everything that had changed in his life since he walked into Taka's class the first day of college.   
The intercom buzzed, and Risako dragged herself to her feet to answer it (after a brief explanation to Mitsukake about what was buzzing and how it worked and how one shut it off). "Hello?"   
"Dear? The police car just pulled away." Hoshiko's voice, normally a very nice one, sounded thin and tinny coming out of the speaker, and a bit confused. "We're coming up now. What made them leave so fast? They just grabbed that man and threw him in the back of the car."   
"Bank robbery," she replied simply   
"Oh. Well, that gunman was still unconscious half a minute ago, so he shouldn't be a problem. What did you _do_ to him? Wait, don't answer. I don't want to know."   
"Can we eat now?" Reijirou called plaintively from his chair.   
"You've been attacked, nearly died yet again, and endured an interrogation with the police. I think your stomach can hold out another five minutes," Hoshiko answered in an unmistakable Mother Tone. The crackling static that was caused by the line being held open abruptly disappeared, meaning the external speaker wasn't in use any more.   
Reijirou listened to his growling stomach with a very Nuriko-like pout on his face. "But that's _why_ I'm hungry."   
Mitsukake sighed and shook his head. "Why do some people get an enhanced metabolism when they're healed? Enhanced metabolism should only occur when the body is healing naturally, and I fix them in a second."   
"But still, a lot's happened today. And I was going through intense physical… activity before that."   
"What intense physical activity, standing on the sidelines?" Risako quipped.   
"I _was_ playing before you got there, you know," he grumbled in return.   
Before another spat could be started the door swung open and the Daishis came in, Nuriko following behind them and wearing an intensely worried look on his face. "Reijirou!" He sped in a flash of pale purple across the room to stop just in front of his counterpart's chair, hauling Reijirou upright in his seat as easily as if he was picking up a roll of paper towels. "Thank Suzaku you're okay! I wanted to come up and check on you, but _he_ needed controlling." Nuriko threw Ryobe a significant look on "he."   
"Can you really blame me?" Ryobe asked in a tone much like Reijirou's grumble. "That shit-"   
"Ryobe!"   
"-went after my daughter," he said, completely ignoring his wife's interruption. "I think anything I do in that situation is understandable."   
"Understandable maybe, but not legal. And speaking of legal, we have a new problem. The cops are suspicious."   
"Cops?" Nuriko and Mitsukake asked at the same time.   
"Police. The two who just left are police, also known as 'cops' in slang terms," Risako patiently explained. "Reijirou's right. After they asked you to leave, Mom, they confronted us with this idea they have that we're not being completely up front with them."   
"Gee, I wonder why they would think that," Nuriko asked brightly.   
"It'll be hard to do anything out of the ordinary if people are following us," Mitsukake said soberly. "We have to think of some way of distracting them."   
"Food first?" Reijirou pleaded, shamelessly turning to look at Hoshiko with wide, sad eyes. He was good at the puppy dog look when he put his mind to it.   
Hoshiko threw her hands up in defeat, but Reijirou thought he could see the beginnings of a smile around her hair and arms. "I've acquired a son. Byakko, _how_ do these things happen? Very well, if you want to eat so much, you can help."   
"No Mom, don't trust his cooking. I still remember the time a couple of years ago when he set the Home Ec lab on fire." Risako grinned at Reijirou evilly.   
"It wasn't the _whole_ lab, just one oven! And that class shouldn't be required anyway!" He determinedly ignored Ryobe's and Nuriko's muffled snickers.   
Risako just shook her head. "I'll fill in for him. You can make him clean up."   
"I should be going," Mitsukake's deep voice broke through. "Now that everyone's in one piece I've outstayed my usefulness."   
"All right, but come back soon." To Reijirou's surprise, Hoshiko walked over to hug Mitsukake tightly. "I want to get a chance to talk to you properly."   
Mitsukake nodded as he returned the hug. It was like Hoshiko - or maybe Subaru - had an enhanced connection for the Suzaku. It wasn't something Reijirou would count against, and maybe they'd have another ally or two when they finally fought Ashitare because of it. "Don't worry, I'll come back. And I'll make Tasuki and Chichiri as well, and Chiriko, when we call him."   
"You must be a mind reader," Hoshiko laughed slightly as she pulled away.   
"Don't stay away too long," Ryobe said as he stepped forward, hand extended to the seishi. "Gets kind of dull around here sometimes."   
He smiled as he shook Ryobe's hand. "Now why am I doubting that?" Mitsukake stepped back a pace, nodded to the rest of the room, and disappeared.   
Risako had disappeared into the kitchen while the good-byes were taking place, and Hoshiko and Ryobe began heading that way, talking pleasantly about something in voices too low to be distinguished. As the room cleared, Reijirou took a deep breath to ask Nuriko a question that had been bothering him since the seishi came through the door. "Nuriko…"   
"Hai?"   
"You… remember that talk we had?"   
He didn't have to say which talk. His tone, hesitancy, and manner were all very clear signals as to what he was thinking about. Nuriko just looked away, remaining silent.   
"What do you think now?"   
Several tense yet surprisingly sad moments passed with the only noises in the room coming through the open door to the kitchen, where the Daishi family was happily arguing about something. Then Nuriko looked up at Reijirou, a wistful, sad, and in some level happy smile on his face. The seishi turned and went into the kitchen.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: The Return of the Dread Ara-chan!   
Ara-chan's reaction when Hoshiko goes down to "talk" to Ryobe after confronting Owake: "Risako's either gonna have one parent or a little sibling after this."   
  


Table of R&R Characters   


**Character**
**Reincarnation of...**
**More**

Enomoto Reijirou
Nuriko
Main character

Enomoto Chiaki
Kourin
Reijirou's older sister

Sukunami Taka
_IS_ Tamahome
Reijirou's professor

Daishi Risako
No one
Reijirou's school friend

Sukunami Miaka
Herself ^_^
Taka's wife

Ijiri Gesshin
Tasuki
Reijirou's best friend

Sukunami Naora
No one
Miaka and Taka's daughter

Lowle Adam
Nakago
Reijirou and Risako's physics classmate

Yuki Keisuke
No one
Miaka's older brother

Enomoto Hajime
Rokou, if anyone (not sure)
Reijirou's younger brother

Aizawa Katai
Amiboshi
Hajime's friend (twin)

Aizawa Shirai
Suboshi
Hajime's friend (twin)

Koiso Akihiko
Ashitare
Bad Guy :P

Seo Murai
Mitsukake
Reijirou's hospital doctor

Mizutani Kadiri
Soi
Reijirou's boss/co-worker

Watari Suezo
Hotohori
Chiaki's boyfriend

Kajiwara Yui
Herself ^_^
Miaka's best friend

Kajiwara Tetsuya
No one
Yui's husband/Keisuke and Taka's best friend

Obinata Morin
No one
Miaka and Yui's school friend

Obinata Hokusai
Chichiri
Morin's husband

Daishi Ryobe
_IS_ Tokaki
Risako's father

Daishi Hoshiko
_IS_ Subaru
Risako's mother

Ijiri Mitsuyo
One of Tasuki's sisters, if anyone
Gesshin's little sister

Seo Setsuko
Shoka
Murai's wife

Tani Daisuke
Chiriko
Keisuke and Tetsuya's employee

  
I'm trusting you all to know who Nuriko, Hotohori, etc are ^_^ If you don't, then you're probably irreversably confused anyway! Jaaaaaa! 


	23. Chapter 23

  
DISCLAIMER: Sorry for the hang up! Still not mine!   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the major delay on this one, guys! I've been spending some time in hell, fairly literally, and didn't have time to proof/HTML this thing until today. Hope no one forgot about this story in the meantime, and hope you'll forgive me for leaving you hanging!   
A few of you said the last bit of 22 was a cliffhanger. Well... it wasn't. I left it hanging, not to be resolved in this chapter. Just hold your horses, you'll find out what's going on soon. And these next chapters are somewhat confusing. Questions that get brought up don't necessarily get answered in the same chapter, some things that seem to be resolved really aren't...   


~Kaze-chan disappears for an hour~   
~Kaze-chan returns~

  
EDDIE IZZAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRD!   
~grins~ Sorry, Eddie Izzard was just on. Wah ha HAAAAAAA! Yes, sliiiiiiiight obsession. I really need to find out when Dressed to Kill STARTS once so I cna tape it and watch the entire thing. Already got Glorious, although I lent it to a friend back in MAY and he kept it all through summer and then gave it to his girlfriend to return which she hasn't but they both got hooked so it's cool but I wanna see it again and chant along with the Grim Reaper lawnmower segment and I need to stop this sentence! Ahh, Mouse could sympathize... "Le singe est sssss...... Le singe est disparu." Okay, stopping ^^;;;   
Time for thank you's!   
Draconsis, no, the cops aren't anyone's reincarnations. They're just cops ^_^ I like 'em. They're showing up again.   
Evil Hunter, rantress extraordinaire! You wanna see Miboshi? Well, hang on, I said all the seishi, didn't I? Just got other things to get to!   
~grins~ Kris-chan, you probably know several things I could say right now, so just fill in the blank. I'll get back to you with that beta soon! Working on it now! ^_^ And seriously, you WOULD need a lot of gel, and don't deny it! It's gotta be immoble!   
Keimei, that thug was a lackey, pure and simple. Disgusting-looking nameless lackey who was instructed to bring Risako to Akihiko. But our female redhead's a bit tougher than she looks ^__^ My girls can't be helpless flowers, I absolutely forbid it! Gah! That would make me sick!   
Chibigreen, that quote MADE MY DAY. Also made a lot of my friends' days. Thank you sooooo much! And yes, of course she can ~grins~ She also knows how to manipulate and torture him (when you consider who he was and what his precarnation acted like, it's not hard to figure out what she does...)   
Skittles - yep, it was "that talk," although the talk was about the _possibility_ of that happening. I'm avoiding revealing that answer as long as possible - and people're gonna hurt me for that, but tough, I'm the all-powerful author! ^_^ And Bendy Straws! Sweet! And pairings, too, will also be put off to a later date ^_^   
Elwing Silme ~grins~ Remember, in the series, Tokaki and Subaru were a good seventy years older than the Suzaku boys. Here, it's only thirty or so years. For me it's actually somewhat easier to reconcile, as I can also picture them middle-aged, not as old as they were in the show (but unfortunately not as young, either ~sobs~). Actually, you weren't the only one to think something was left out - Ara-chan did too, when she read it. But neither of us could figure out what it was, so it got left as-is. And the Big Meeting WILL happen! ^_^ No worries!   
Sano. ~THWACKS~ if you really did that, I'd get to sashimi you ^_^ And of course Ryobe can't think before he acts! He wouldn't be Ryobe then! ^_^ And I would tell you, but she's not exactly telling -me-, although I suspect it involves him sleeping on the couch for a long time. Remember, that's a verrrrrrrrrrrrry big torture for him! ^_^   
Flying heart, of COURSE Miyazaki is amazing! He's my favorite filmmaker. I'm trying to hunt down everything of his - unfortunately I've only seen Mononoke, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (aka Spirited Away), and half or so of Totoro. I'm working on it, though! And the Reijirou/Risako-Reijirou/Anyone else thing is going to get _more_ confusing, not _less_ - and I'm gonna have to run from people with weapons, but what the hell, life is spicy that way! ^^ Actually, the table of characters wasn't my idea. Someone requested it on chapter 20 I think and I just got around to putting it up on 22. And yes, smack the wits INTO the younger brother. I wish you luck!   
Hotohori Fan, cliffhangers are a godsend ~grins~ I honestly admit that I employ them to keep people reading. A lot of professional authors do that, and it works - a lot of times I can hardly put the book down! (Faulkner's a different story altogether.) Hope you still like this!   
Okay, NOTE THIS. I did NOT copy any of this or any of what's coming up from Mouse-chan, and she will verify it. We compared story notes one day back in _January_ I think and realized we just happened to have a lot of the same ideas. I've had this fic planned for months - it's just getting it down that's the problem.   
And cultural note, because I make a very bad reference to this in this chapter. There was a famous comic in Japan with the last name of Enomoto, Enomoto Ken'ichi. He was basically the reason that comedy didn't die out after WWII; I think he died around 1970. He's still famous, I think kinda like Bing Crosby or John Belushi (we all know their names, after all). I just make a bad reference to him and don't want anyone to get confused. Oh well, have fun!   
  


****************************************************************************************************

  
  
_Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiii_- "Stereo Music, may I help you?"   
"Hey Reijirou, glad I got you at last."   
"Risako?" He set down the catalog he'd been idly leafing through, turning the rest of his attention to the phone. "Why are you calling me here?"   
"Well, I tried your home and they said you were at work, and if I wait any longer it'll be too late."   
"_WHO IS IT?_" Kadiri yelled from the back. Yelling was the only way to be heard in the front from there, and vice versa.   
"_IT'S RISAKO!_" he yelled back, making sure the phone was covered. "Sorry. Kadiri. Too late for what?"   
"For tonight!" Reijirou could practically hear the sugar in her voice. "Chomei-kun is giving a party tonight, but my parents made me promise not to go anywhere alone, so will you take me pleeeeaaaaaaase? You don't have to stay, but I need an escort."   
"What? That thug was arrested two days ago and we haven't seen anything from any of them since then, Ashitare or lackeys."   
From her tone, Risako was rolling her eyes. "Tell that to my parents. And I suppose they have a point, and no one should really be going around alone anyway, just in case something _does_ happen. But anyway, can you do it? You're at the top of their list of Trusted Bodyguards," she added helpfully.   
He sighed, knowing he couldn't say no. She, like most females, could turn on the five-year-old charm at any instant, and he'd have another Naora on his hands. "Sure, what time do you need me to pick you up?"   
"YAAAAAAY! Hey Mom, he'll do it!" she called away from the phone. "Can you be here at 6:30? That should be enough time."   
"I don't have the car today."   
"Okay, make it 6:15 then. Thanks Reijirou, you're the best." _Click_.   
"Well good bye to you too," he told the buzzing receiver as he set it in the cradle again.   
Kadiri pushed her way out of the back, kicking the door open with her foot as her hands were somewhat occupied with a tall stack of heavy cardboard boxes. Reijirou ran around the counter and took them from her, holding them as easily as if they were tissue paper. "Thanks," Kadiri panted, swiping a stay piece of hair from her eyes. "What was the phone call about? Oh, set those over here." She took Reijirou by the shoulders and spun him around, then pushed-slash-guided him to where she wanted the boxes.   
He set them down, next to the Imported section, and rotated his right arm. It was giving him some trouble, and he was thinking of seeing Murai about it before it got too bad. "The Daishis got paranoid and made Risako promise not to go anywhere alone, which hasn't been a problem so far, but apparently one of her friends is having a party tonight and she doesn't have anyone to take her. And also apparently I'm at the top of a very short list."   
"Yeah, no wonder, you two are practically going steady. Who better to protect the damsel in distress than the knight in shining armor?" Kadiri replied with a wicked grin.   
Reijirou sighed in exasperation, shaking his head. "_Why_ does everyone insist on putting us together? Isn't it possible for a guy and a girl to be _friends_ nowadays?"   
"Not the way you two act." Kadiri laughed and ducked a swipe. "And it's so easy to bait you like that. You, the social butterfly, are afraid of romantic commitment."   
Reijirou snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "At least I get out. Hey, wanna come? I don't think there'll be anyone there I know, I could use some company."   
Kadiri took a step back and shook her head. "Oh no. I still remember what happened the _last_ time you dragged me out for an 'introduce me to the world' session. Chaos, cursing, and clobbering, remember?"   
"By the way, where _is_ Soi today?"   
"Suezo has her and Hotohori today, thank god. After a day like yesterday…" she groaned.   
Reijirou didn't have to ask what the groan was about. He'd been there, and on the subsequent clean-up crew, after Amiboshi and Suboshi between them had managed to take apart three of the wire-frame CD display cases. They hadn't bothered to explain how the cases came apart to the new clerk, who was also working at the time.   
"And I couldn't come with you anyway, I already have plans. Oh, you shut up!" Kadiri chucked a pencil at him as Reijirou went into a dramatic swoon and faint over the news that she was actually going to _do something_.   
Reijirou grinned up at her from the floor, rubbing his nose where the eraser had hit it. "Amazing, you're getting out! Pray tell what happy circumstance merits this break from traditional behavior."   
"Now _that_ is none of your damn business," Kadiri told him firmly, turning away and walking in the direction of the back room.   
"It IS my business! _I saw you blush just now!_"   
"Did not!"   
"Did too!"   
"DID NOT!"   
"DID TOO!"   
"_DID NOT!_"   
"AH-HAH! You ARE blushing!" Reijirou crowed triumphantly. He'd seen it plain as day when she turned to scream her last retort at him. "TELL already!"   
"All right, all right, if it'll make you shut up all _right!_" Kadiri groaned, pressing the heels of her hands to her cheeks and shaking her head. "I swear, you're the most dense, most annoying, most irritating-"   
"You forgot charming, handsome, superiOW!"   
Kadiri grabbed another CD and prepared to use it as more ammunition if necessary. "And you can't laugh. You can't tease me. Promise that or not only will I not tell you, I'll make sure this gets stuffed up your nose." She waved the CD threateningly.   
Reijirou didn't really feel like having enlarged nostrils at the party, and Kadiri could be downright dangerous when she wanted to be. He forced back the laughter and managed to put on a straight face. "I promise."   
"All right." She still held the CD poised to throw, and Reijirou prepared to do some major laughter hiding. "I'm going out with Keisuke tonight."   
Blink…… blink. "You're what?"   
"Are you deaf or something? I said I'm going out with Keisuke tonight. He asked me last week and I said yes."   
"You're going out with Keisuke…"   
"Yes, dolt."   
"Ohhhhhhh, this is perfect."   
"NE! You take that look off your face RIGHT NOW or I'll-"   
"I only said I wouldn't tease _you!_ I never said I wouldn't tease the two of you together! OW!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"She's going out with _Keisuke_ tonight?!" Risako asked as they walked, her eyes wide with surprise.   
"Yeah, it shocked me too. I don't know if it's a _date_ or a just-friends type of thing, but still. How much farther is it?"   
"Not much. Why, is mister superstar track runner getting tiiiiiiiired?" Risako grinned and ducked Reijirou's attempt to grab her shirtsleeve, darting ahead and laughing. He wasn't about to let her get away with that, so he sped up, keeping an eye on her through the crowd, tracking her progress. Pedestrian traffic got in his way, though, and he spent the last six blocks of the trip trying to catch her, as she could slip through the spaces in the crowd better.   
By the time he finally pushed his way past the last slow walkers, Risako had come to a stop at the entrance to the parking lot of an apartment building he'd seen before, but never entered. It was one of the buildings that screamed College Kids Live Here, what with the parking lot only a fourth full of cars that might possibly be more run-down than his (a dazzling feat in and of itself) and trash cans placed out for collecting that seemed to be full of nothing but instant ramen packages. Reijirou'd never had reason to enter a college student's apartment before as most of his friends were younger than him, and he found himself getting a little apprehensive - what would be going on in there tonight? He just prayed to Suzaku that nothing illegal would happen; he and Risako were in enough trouble with the police as it was.   
"So who _is_ this Chomei guy anyway?" Reijirou asked as they wound their way through the strangely empty parking lot.   
"Jukodo Chomei. He's a year ahead of us, I got to know him through some extracurricular stuff at school. Soccer, mostly, he was our manager. He goes to Seinan, and he's majoring in some sort of business thing. Too much math for me." She paused by the door into the building, studying the list of names and apartment numbers. "Where is he, where is- ah." She located the nameplate that spelled out his name and pressed the corresponding button next to it.   
A couple of seconds later there came a squall of static from the substandard speaker. When the noise cleared, there could distinctly be heard the sounds of music in the background and lots of talking. "Who is it?" It was definitely a male voice.   
"It's Risako, I'm coming up!"   
"Hey, Risako-san! Yeah, come up, we're all waiting." A general unintelligible chorus from the background talkers seemed to support his point.   
"Well, I'll take off now, have a good time," Reijirou called as he started to head back through the parking lot.   
Risako spun, looking hurt. "I invite you to a party and you're not gonna even go _in_? Come on, it's Friday night, we don't have classes tomorrow, is it gonna _kill_ you to at least _meet_ these people? I think you'd like them, if you give them a chance."   
"But I've got stuff to do-"   
Risako darted forward and grabbed his sleeve before he could blink. "No arguments!" He yelped as she pulled him towards the shabby door inside.   
A minute later they were standing in the hallway Chomei's apartment was on, fading carpet beneath their feet, dull paint on the walls. Risako was knocking with one hand and holding Reijirou in place with the other. He was normally up for anything like this, but for some reason he just didn't want to be there at that party. There was just something… not quite right he was feeling…   
The door swung open abruptly and light and music poured out into the hall, startling him and making Risako grin. "Chomei-kun!"   
"Risako-san!" Chomei was taller than Reijirou by a good four inches and also had a bulkier build, but not by much - most soccer players tended to be lithe rather than excessively muscular. He couldn't tell what color hair or eyes Chomei had as the light from the apartment was most definitely stronger than the light from the hall and threw him into relief, but he could tell he had relatively short hair. Shorter than Reijirou's own, but not by much - it was like Taka's almost. "And who's this?" Chomei asked, turning to Reijirou.   
"Oh, Reijirou, this is Jukodo Chomei. Chomei, this is Enomoto Reijirou."   
"Enomoto?" Chomei's eyes brightened. "Hey, are you-"   
"No I'm _not_ related to Enomoto Ken'ichi," he replied automatically, and with a great deal of emphasis.   
Chomei just watched him for a minute before speaking again. "I _was_ going to ask if you were related to Chiaki, but… never mind."   
"Oh. Heh." Reijirou grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Gomen. I get that question a lot, though. Just because we have the same last name doesn't make us related. Yeah, Chiaki's my sister."   
"Nice, I had her in one of my classes once, forget which one though… But what are we standing around here for, come in!"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
One hour later found Reijirou sprawled by himself on the couch in the main room of Chomei's apartment, a soda in his hand (avoiding the alcohol that was inevitably making the rounds), wondering when he could leave. Not until Risako did; his sense of duty and honor would drive him crazy if he left her in other hands, saying it was _his_ responsibility and _he'd_ said yes and- Damn, it was annoying to have a conscience.   
He didn't really fit in with this group either, which was surprising him. He'd been somewhat of a chameleon in high school, able to show up anywhere and make friends and feel at ease - but maybe that was because he'd been popular. He hated to use the term popular, but he'd definitely been well known and somewhat influential in his class; most people knew who he was and he could talk to almost anyone. But the group at this party seemed to be made of Soccer People, which in a way made sense but didn't help his situation any. Risako had been claimed by a group of girls who he vaguely remembered being on the soccer team in high school, and sat with them still, happily gabbing away about who-knew-what. There were also a surprisingly few number of people for a party: fifteen at the most. The guys had all gathered together in Chomei's room and were actively discussing something he hadn't been able to understand even when he had been able to hear them. And the other group of girls, the larger group, was talking about Girl Topics: makeup, hair, clothing, boyfriends, and the like. His patience was worn thin enough as it was without having to listen to them.   
Something clambered over the back of the couch and dropped with a dull whuff of air beside him, flattening the foamy cushions. "Not having fun?" Chomei asked, leaning forward to grab an unopened soda from the damaged coffee table in front of them.   
For some reason, picking the non-alcoholic choice raised him in Reijirou's regards. "Not really. I don't know anyone except Risako, and now you. I'm only here because… something bad happened and her parents don't want her going around alone. And if I leave before she does my conscience'll kill me."   
Chomei laughed a little, nodding his head. "The Daishis get some strange ideas sometimes, all three of them."   
"Oh, you've met them?"   
He nodded. "They used to come to all the games. They were never the loudest or most obsessive parents, but somehow you could tell they were the most proud. We talked afterwards a few times, they're good people."   
"Yeah, they are."   
"So." Chomei popped the tab on the soda, but didn't drink immediately. "What're you majoring in?"   
Reijirou shrugged, fiddling with the pop-tab he'd pulled off the can. "Don't know. I'm still surprised I even got in, let me get over _that_ shock before you make me think about the rest of my life." He saw Chomei grin out of the corner of his eye. "You're in business?"   
"Unfortunately." He made an expressive face and set the drink down again, still untasted. "My father wants me to help him out at work after I get out of school, but it's not what I want."   
Reijirou frowned slightly. He'd thought they were past the be-just-like-me era of fathers, but apparently not entirely. "What would you be doing instead?"   
"I don't really know… art or something, maybe…" Chomei was interrupted by a burst of giggling from the Girly Group, who he glanced at before shaking his head and settling on the couch again. "At least I got out of my home, I'd go crazy if I was still there. Do you have your own place?" he asked, a genuinely interested look in his eyes.   
"Nah, I live at home. It saves money and I have access to a car and phone and free food. And my family gets along pretty well, Chiaki still lives there too."   
"Must be nice to have such a good family. We're well enough off, but close-knit's something you could never call us." Chomei turned to look at Reijirou seriously. "That's why friends are so important to me."   
Huh? "…Right."   
"You know, we should do something together, just the two of us. I'm always ready to make new friends."   
_Am I mistaken or am I… getting hit on?_ "That's good, I guess."   
"So, what about it? We could go see a film, get a bite, whatever you want."   
_Help. Save me. Now._ "Uh, maybe later, when I'm not so busy with school and work and stuff…" He started to get up, but Chomei grabbed his wrist and pulled him to sit down again. It was like he didn't even think about it, he just did it.   
"You work? Cool, where?"   
He was faaaaaaaaar too interested for Reijirou's comfort. "Nowhere important."   
Chomei grinned, an impish grin that would have seemed right on Risako, maybe, but definitely _not_ him in that situation. "I _could_ just get Risako-san to tell me, might as well save me the trouble and do it yourself."   
_Heeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllpppppp!_ "At a music store." _Risako, help me, NOW! GET HIM AWAY!_   
"Cool! I'm always up for finding a new music store." He gave Reijirou a significant look that made the younger boy want to hide under the couch. "Especially one with cute help."   
"'xcusemeIgottagoaskRisakosomething," he blabbered before boosting himself over the back of the couch, tumbling off, and taking off in a run towards the room her group had occupied - the mini-kitchen. Chomei was left on the couch with a classic "what did I do?" look on his face.   
Reijirou burst through the door to the mini-kitchen and saw… not what he wanted. The other three girls Risako had been talking to were still perched on the counter at various intervals, but Risako herself was nowhere to be seen. The other three looked at him strangely as he stood there, breathing slightly heavily, one hand gripping the door handle, the other braced against the frame, leaning into the room with a look of desperation on his face. "Where's Risako?" he asked helplessly.   
"She went to the bathroom…" the blonde said cautiously. She didn't even get to finish before Reijirou dashed away, leaving the door swinging in his wake.   
He located the bathroom and pounded at the door, really not caring about the dent he put in the wood. He could barely hear the sound of running water over the music in the background and the typical party chatter. "Risako, open up!"   
A second passed in sheer agony where he was _sure_ that at any moment Chomei was going to come looking for him, but before the fear could root too deep the door opened and Risako leaned out. "Reijirou? What is it?"   
He wasted no words, just pushed her back into the small room and practically dove in himself, closing the door hurriedly.   
"Reijirou! What the hell are you _doing?!_ Do you know how many rumors you just started?!" Risako demanded.   
"I don't care! In fact maybe it'd be better if they _did_ start." He paced the narrow room restlessly and wildly as best he could.   
"Better for who, you or me?" she replied darkly, sitting on the sink counter with a huff.   
He didn't catch the warning note in her voice. "Me." He spun to face her, a pleading look on his face. "Risako, I don't care _what_ you do, but _keep him away from me!_"   
That threw her for a loop. "Him? What him?" Her voice lost all maliciousness, went to merely puzzled and agonizingly curious.   
"Him! Your friend! Chomei! Damnit, he was _hitting on me_!"   
A teasing grin stretched across her face as she understood at last. "Oh, should I have warned you he was gay, then?"   
"_YES!!_"   
She laughed and stood, quite calm and in control now. "Calm down. I'll tell him to back off. I could tell him you have a significant other, too."   
"But I don't!"   
"But he doesn't know that," she replied reasonably. "And if you're this adamant about it, then a white lie can help a lot. Now, OUT!"   
"But Risako-"   
"Out!" She opened the door and shoved him out, making him rebound off the wall across the hall as she stepped out calmly and shut the door again. "And don't start freaking out again. I promise, I'll make him leave you alone."   
"Risako, can we just get out of here?" he begged.   
She shook her head. "Not if you want this finished."   
The bathroom was located on a small hallway that connected the main room with Chomei's bedroom, the door of which was mostly closed. Unfortunately, there was no door between the hallway and the main room, and from the right position everything in the hallway was easily seen. And the couch was in the right position. Out of the corner of his eye, Reijirou saw Chomei's face brighten when he magically appeared out of the bathroom (Chomei didn't seem to notice that he'd been pushed, though), and the older boy had set down his drink, stood, and was weaving his way around the furniture before Reijirou even knew what was going on. "Risako, he's coming, let's get _out_ already."   
"Don't worry! He won't do anything!"   
"How can you be so _sure?!_"   
Risako seemed to be keeping tabs on Chomei out of the corner of her eye, and she didn't act like she'd heard his question. He was about to desperately repeat it when she grabbed the front of his shirt in both hands, hauled him down to her level, and _kissed_ him full on the mouth.   
He was a _little_ too stunned to do anything to stop her.   
After about ten seconds she pulled back, letting him stand up straight again but not letting go of his shirt. He could only stare at her in shock, but she was giving him a look that seemed to say she thought of him as more than just a friend…   
Unknown to him, but _very_ apparent to her, Chomei was standing at the entrance to the hall, a stricken look on his face. Somehow he'd been so _sure_ that Reijirou was like him, for _some reason_ he'd just been _sure_… He watched Reijirou, all hopes dashed, trying to see the expression on his strangely beautiful face. His vision was blocked by Reijirou's own hair, though, and so he glanced at Risako, who _definitely_ looked lovey-dovey.   
"Wanna get out of here?" she asked, softly, that smile still on her face. Reijirou just nodded. "Come on then, let's go."   
Chomei stepped out of the way, still watching in shock, as the two of them walked down the hall, going past him as if he wasn't even there, watching each other. The main door to the apartment opened onto the main room, and that's where they went. He scrambled after them, still trying to catch a glimpse of Reijirou's face.   
Reijirou was still in a daze. He opened the door in a daze, let Risako go through in a daze, went through himself in a daze, and closed it in a daze. With the last _click_ of the door shutting, the sweet sappy look on Risako's face was replaced with the utmost in mischief and triumph. "Toldja."   
"The… the _hell?!_"   
She just grinned innocently. "You _said_ 'I don't care what you do,' so I took you at your word! And you're a horrible actor. Calm down, you're gonna make me get annoyed, which is not good after I just did you a favor."   
"But you just _kissed_ me!"   
"I didn't think most guys had problems with that," she drawled sarcastically.   
The door bursting open interrupted their almost-argument, and they both turned to look at it. Chomei stood there, watching them, a strange expression on his face. Reijirou hurriedly ducked over to the side and let Risako take care of saying goodbye for them both.   
She smiled at Chomei, just a normal, friendly smile. "Thanks for inviting me, Chomei-kun, I had fun. But I should probably be getting back, Mom and Dad are getting paranoid."   
"Okay…" he replied, looking at Reijirou, who determinedly was attempting to look casual. "Maybe we could do something together later, the… three of us."   
As Reijirou was very likely to burst out with something radically inappropriate at that, Risako forestalled the explosion by answering for them both. "Yeah, we'll work it out."   
There was the soft noise of air displacement next to his shoulder, the one away from the door, and while Risako had Chomei engaged he glanced over to see what it was. Soi stood there, arms crossed, a pout on her face that would be funny at any time his nerves weren't destroyed. She was also grumbling under her breath. "I go to check on her, make sure she's all right, and she's sitting there getting all sugary-sweet with Keisuke of all people!"   
Reijirou checked, making sure that Chomei was still distracted, then spoke in a voice only loud enough to let Soi hear. "You're the one who was obsessed with a man to the point of killing and you get disgusted by a little talking?"   
She looked distinctly discomforted and shot him a glare to hide it. "Well… it's not the same thing."   
"Oh no, not at all," he replied, his overly nice tone dripping with sarcasm.   
"Shut up," she snapped, looking away from him to hide the fact she was blushing, exactly as Kadiri had. She finally noticed the dismal surroundings, taking in the low light, the bad carpet, the narrowness of the hall, barely wide enough for two people to walk down shoulder to shoulder. "I take it this place isn't in the best of condition."   
"Nope," he replied, still softly.   
He glanced up again when he heard Risako's voice say his name. "What was that?"   
"I said we'd get in touch about doing something," she repeated, being careful not to make any overt reactions to Soi's sudden appearance.   
"Maybe tomorrow, all right?" As much as he wanted to hate him, Reijirou could almost pity Chomei when he saw the look the older boy was wearing, like a kid whose puppy just got ran over. After all, it wasn't Chomei's fault that Reijirou wasn't interested in him like that, just as it wasn't Reijirou's fault that Chomei _was_.   
"Yeah, maybe. We'll let you know." He barely managed to finish his sentence before Soi let out a shriek that curdled both his and Risako's blood.   
"_WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE?!?!?!_"   
  


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"Tetsuya, I'm serious! It's Tomo! We have Tomo!"   
"You've gotta be lying, there's no _way_ we could have missed him this long!"   
"_I'M NOT!_" Reijirou yelled into the receiver of the pay phone whose booth he and Risako were stuffed in, sharing the receiver, with Soi hanging around outside and still looking miffed. "_SOI_ says it's him! She'd know! She and the twins would know better than anyone!" He cast a glance at the seishi in question, then lowered his voice to protect his life. "And boy does she look pissed. I don't think she's ever forgiven him for rivaling her for Nakago."   
Tetsuya sighed. "Sounds like you have the right person then… Can you try and explain again why we didn't know this before?"   
Risako huffed and tilted the receiver in her direction. "One, his hair isn't three feet long now. Two, he's not wearing that god-awful makeup or those weird clothes. Three, he acts normal now. And no he _doesn't_ seem homicidal. He _isn't_, I've known him three years!"   
"Then why didn't _you_ see this before?"   
"Do you really want me to bash you over the head with that list next time I see you?"   
"Tetsuya," Reijirou broke in, yanking the receiver back, "can you and Yui help us get everyone together for tomorrow? The sooner we get him summoned, the better."   
"Sure, we'll help," the older man replied. "And I have a piece of good news. Daisuke is working tomorrow, as is Keisuke. We could do another joint summoning, close up shop for the afternoon and bring Daisuke to… Where's this one gonna happen?"   
Risako pulled the speaking end of the receiver back to her. "How about at my place? I still have the books there, and Chomei-kun won't be too surprised if I ask him to come over; he has before."   
"Are you sure? What about your family?"   
"Don't worry," she said firmly. "I guarantee there won't be a problem."   
"Okay, if you're sure… See you tomorrow, two o'clock fine with you?"   
"Perfect. See you then. Say hi to Yui."   
"Bye."   
"Bye Tetsuya," Reijirou answered, hanging up the receiver then shooting Risako a curious look. "They still don't know about your parents?"   
She shrugged as well as she could in the cramped space. "There never seemed to be a good time to mention it. Although word might have gotten around since at least three seishi have seen them and talked to them."   
"Gesshin knows for sure. Well, any way it happens tomorrow's gonna be interesting." Reijirou suddenly became aware of just how small the space they were occupying was and how close the two of them had to stand, and he abruptly whirled and exited in a hurry.   
Risako followed, closing the door to the booth with a perplexed expression on her face. "What is it?"   
"Nothing. Ready to go, Soi?" he asked, turning to the seishi who was still looking ticked.   
Before she could answer Risako had grabbed his wrist and pulled him around to face him again, a determined look on her face. "Yes there damn well _is_ something, now tell me or I'm gonna have to torture it out of you."   
"Look, don't push it." He yanked out of her grasp and began walking back in the direction of the Daishi apartment, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "It's nothing."   
"It's that kiss, isn't it?"   
"Kiss?" Soi inquired, looking up with more interest than she had showed in anything in the last fifteen minutes.   
He groaned. "Oh now look what you did. The gossip circle's gonna be running at top level now."   
"It's nothing to be ashamed of. It got Chomei off your back, didn't it?"   
"What kiss?" Soi interrupted again.   
Risako briefly summed up. "Chomei was hitting on Reijirou, and Reijirou asked me to do whatever it took to get Chomei away from him, and so I kissed him when Chomei could see us. There, that's all."   
"Hmm, Kadiri'll be interested in this…"   
"What did I tell you about the gossip circle?" Reijirou muttered darkly.   
"Fine." Risako had had enough. If he was going to make _that_ big a deal out of it then she wasn't going to bother with him. "I've had enough. I'm going home." She whirled and marched past Reijirou, completely annoyed and ready to hit him if he said just one more thing.   
There was a scrambling of footsteps behind her and then it was Reijirou's turn to grab her arm and make her face him. "Not by yourself, I promised your parents."   
She wrenched away, feeling like she was teetering on the border of killing him in anger or having the worst crying fit she ever had in her life. "Oh, so that's how it is," she said acidly. "Duty. Responsibility. Your conscience will drive you crazy if you let me out of your sight. _I can take care of myself thank you so fucking much!_" She spun again and ran, leaving him staring after her in shock.   
A moment passed in almost complete silence where he couldn't think, couldn't even hear himself breathe. "For someone whose past life lived as a woman for several years, you still have a lot to learn about them," Soi said calmly behind him.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Yeah, people either love me or hate me now. Probably hate me ~ducks pokey weapons~ And yeah, I screwed with the poor boy's head even more - believe it or not, this is light for me. Seriously. I've been known to kill pregnant character's lovers before. ~shrugs~ Occupational hazard. I do torture if it fits the story, I do good stuff if it fits the story. I'm just strange.   
Seriously, how many people wanna hurt me now, and why exactly? I have this bizarre curiousity to know now! ^_^ Jaaa! 


	24. Chapter 24

  
DISCLAIMER: When it's mine, I'll let you know, K?   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Remember when I discovered Rent? Yeah, I've become obsessed with Aida now... Rent's still my favorite, by all means, but I saw Aida on Tuesday and *ahem* _borrowed_ the OBC recording from my friend, sooooooooo it's getting stuck in my head. Believe it or not, my favorite songs are Zoser's... Although I love just about everything on here. And Heather (the Aida on the CD) is so much easier for me to understand than Paulette (tour Aida), but, well, I don't know. And of course, Adam Pascal. But I think I like the touring Amneris more than the CD one... The woman we had reminded me so much of Ana Gasteyer, from SNL, it was great!   
Another random thing, but more connected. Has anyone except me noticed the decreased posting rate? The FY section seems to be losing steam. Wonder why that is... Slightly strange, since when I first came here, sometimes there would be enough new posts or updated posts to fill up a screen and a half. Oh well, not up to me, we're all busy. I for one have to do my research paper organization soon --;;;;; As in "the next couple hours."   
Okay, getting to actual notes about the story/chapter! This is one of those chapters that appears choppy to me - and indeed, this is the chapter that got the biggest remake in the revision stage, ever. I took great entire chunks and rearranged them, wrote filler, and hoped it went together. If it seems to move fast, it's probably because this is one of those chapters that took me months to write, and I kept getting impatient - after all, it's all one day to them, but it was eight weeks to me... I can't help it ^^;;;;; Okay, like I said last time, don't expect anything. Stuff that seems to be resolved isn't necessarily, but will continue to pop up later... That's one of the best ways for me to deal with "rushing," I've found, is to leave it unresolved and bring it up later. I've written entire stories that got held together that way ^^;;;;;;; Sowwy if it seems weird is the summary, I guess. Okay, review replies!   
Kris, Kris, Kris... you shall want to kill me later, more likely than not. Then agaaaaaaaaaain, if you dooooooooooo... ~grins~ I wouldn't try it. And yeah, Chomei's a decent person, just a little screwed-up because of his overbearing father. He's proving to be interesting, and Tomo-interactions probably will be too ~smirks~ I got plans...   
Ahh, Skittles. Twists. Pretzels! I like pretzels ^_^ Sorry, that was somewhat off topic... yeah, I'm a twist fanatic, can ya tell?   
STORMLIGHT! What IS it with you?! You're my TWO HUNDREDTH reviewer! ~majormajormajor glomp!~ You were 50th and 100th too, I think! Sheesh, you -always- know when to pop up! But good intuition! ~grins~ And he's not an insensitive cod. He's a clueless clod ~firm nod~ And I ain't tellin' anythin'! This is one of those thing I refuse to spoil, aside from consulting beta-readers about the future plot. And even then, that's... two people? Heh. '^____________^' I's evil.   
Sanoooooooooo! Sheesh, Chomei is just getting his feet, and people call him freaky! Poor boy! ~huggles him~ He just needs some self-confidence. And remember people, the kiss wasn't serious! Sheesh, it was to get Chomei off his back. I'm saying sheesh a lot... And if you want light, then wait around '^_^' It'll be awhile before true "lightness."   
Evil Hunter, that had absolutely NO effect on me. And this doesn't really get answered in the story, so I'll answer it here because it's a relevant question with no real plot spoilers. Soi went to Reijie-chan and Risako because a) she wasn't up for destruction that night (which the 'boshi quadruplets seem to be excelling in) and b)Reijirou knew and Kadiri asked her not to spread it around. In other words, I needed her there, so I came up with reasonable excuses for her to _be_ there ~grins~   
Chibigreen, you got it! I think you're the first one to comment on the similarity in names in this _whole_ thing. I honestly expected someone to pick it up before this. I didn't want to use their "real" names (Ryuuen, Genrou, Saihitei, etc), so I decided to go for names that began with the same roman letter (Reijirou, Gesshin, Suezo, etc). It worked with everyone except Subaru and Tokaki (because they're Doulin and Lanva, respectively, and the site I was using didn't have names for their gender that began with D or L) and Ashitare (because I don't _know_ his real name. Does anyone?). Way to spot it!   
Draconsis... Kowai... ^^;;;;;; Oh, and maybe you can explain it to me (and maybe explaining'll stop you from maiming): _why_ does everyone want him and Risako together? All the shounen ai people seemed to have faded away; it's giving me the creeps ^^;;; Are they planning a subversive attack? (Wait, I forgot, they already had one!)   
Bashou, is it gonna make yoooooouuuuuu jealous? ~grins~ And don't forget, I can always recall Kinji! Abuse of glompees is not permitted! And it might be cute, but honestly, Reijie's so scared of him now that even if he sorts himself out and finds out he really _is_ gay, nothin' would happen. Poor Chomei... And yeah, you told me ~grins~ A few months ago, actually. And I'LL WORK ON IT! Dangit, he'll turn out better off then a lot of 'em... Just hold your freakin' horses!   
Elwing, yep, that chapter ended, just for you ^_^ And yeah, I know the Kadiri/Keisuke thing sounds somewhat far-fetched, but in some corner of my mind it makes sense (maybe because they both seem to have a hard time with romance, who knows, I can't explain it), so it's staying. But I happen to like Keisuke, so I'm giving him a break ^_~ And, um... not really...   
Lib-chan, like I said, it's coincidence ~shrugs~ Can't really help it. But I think it turned out well ^_^ And Chomei's pretty less-freaky than Chuin, after all (he's definitely NOT a stalker for one thing) and possibly more relaxed. He's... interesting. Looks like he'll be fun to manipulate.   
Arashi, I'm sorry! I hope the paper turned out all right anyway... Actually, I'm ignoring my own research paper for Lit to type up these notes... ^^;;;; It's contageous. And go ahead and say stuff! Saying stuff gets responses (most times)! And heck, maybe you'll have an insight that no one else did, like Chibigreen did last chapter. I love hearing opinions and suggestions! Go right ahead! And I'll try and work on more Gesshin and Tasuki, okay? Gesshin's pretty prominent in this chapter ^_~ The characters just show up when I need 'em to, I don't really have a formula... Thank you!   
Flying heart ~cracks up~ Sing-songy, aren't we? And you might possibly scare me more than Draconsis, after all this isn't the first time you've done that!   
Hmm.... Guess there's not much more for up here.   
  


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Reijirou debated for a long time that night about whether he should go the next day or not. He had followed Risako back to her home because his conscience really _wouldn't_ leave him alone if he didn't follow through on his promise, but he had stayed well behind her and hadn't let her know what he was doing. He didn't want to die by her hand, after all. But it wasn't strictly necessary for him to be there any more. Miaka hadn't had any problems last time, and Suezo and Hotohori could take his place, and Nuriko would still be there. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he wasn't. But his conscience (something he'd gotten from Nuriko, he guessed acidly) kept coming back and nagging him about responsibility and duty and more besides. He spent a loooooooooong night trying to figure it out and finally got to sleep sometime around three in the morning, without even having changed out of his clothes from school, work, and the party.   
He was awakened in the morning, far too early for his tastes, by the door to his room banging open loudly. "Man! What're ya still doin' in bed? And- What th' fuck man, why din' ya _change_? What the hell is _wrong_ with ya?!"   
"Go 'way Gesshin," he said, blinking in the blurry redhead's direction. If he looked hard enough he could see Nuriko and Tasuki out in the hall, talking. Funny, he didn't remember Nuriko coming back the night before… He let his head fall back onto his pillow. "'m not gettin' up today."   
"Damn man, what'd ya do, spen' th' night on th' town or somethin'? It's eleven already, ya never sleep this late!" Despite his tone and gruff words, Gesshin was obviously worried about his friend. He grabbed the desk chair and pulled it over, turning backwards and straddling it, peering anxiously at Reijirou all the while. "What's goin' on? Ye're never like this. What 'appened?"   
"Nothin' happened. Just leave me alone." Reijirou voice was severely muffled by the pillow.   
"Fuck that 'nothin' happened,' somethin' obviously did. Ye're a rotten liar." Despite his much greater strength, Reijirou couldn't resist as Gesshin grabbed him by the ankle and pulled him off his bed, landing with a thud on the floor. Gesshin ignored his plentiful curses to stare him down. "I've known ya six years now, man. I know when somethin's bothering' ya. Ya can't hide it from me, an' if ya think ya can, ya got a whole lot less brain than I gave ya credit for."   
"_Damnit, LEAVE ME ALONE!_" Reijirou roared, jumping up to yell straight in Gesshin's face. "_NOTHING'S WRONG! NOTHING! JUST LEAVE! ME! ALONE!_"   
There was a minute of silence. Reijirou could feel Nuriko's and Tasuki's startled stares on him, but he didn't care. He just didn't care anymore. Gesshin just watched him, face void of all emotion. He didn't care about that either. He didn't care about Nuriko, Tasuki, the mission, or the fact that he'd nearly died. He just wanted to be left _alone_.   
"Fine." Gesshin turned and walked, frighteningly calmly, out of the room, closing the door behind him, shutting Reijirou off from his best friend and the two concerned seishi.   
He dropped back onto the bed with a sigh. "Great Reijirou," he muttered to himself, "what'd you do that for? Now you've got your best friend mad at you. What the hell is _wrong_ with you?"   
But he was fairly sure he knew what the problem was. It wasn't really the kiss, although it played a large factor in the problem. It wasn't that Risako was raging mad at him, although that was probably _caused_ by the problem.   
No, the problem was, honestly and truly, that he was beginning to seriously doubt his own orientations and choices. He had before, but Chomei's attempted flirting the night before, and then everything that had happened with Risako, had expanded it tenfold. He'd never really been serious about a girl; the dates he'd gone on were more "as friends" than anything else. And he'd never kissed anyone. He'd just thought he had better things to do than get hung up on romance stuff, but what if all that was because he really was interested in guys after all and had just been denying it until then…?   
A soft knock sounded on the door, and it slowly swung open. Nuriko's shaggy head peeked in, cautious and concerned. "Reijirou? Are you okay…?"   
"Nuriko, come in and shut the door." His voice was like a robot's, flat tone and no emotion. Nuriko blinked in surprise, then quietly did what he was told. Reijirou slowly looked up once the door clicked shut. "I've got a question for you. Please be truthful."   
Nuriko opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and just nodded.   
"Do you love Hotohori?"   
His eyes widened in surprise at his modern counterpart. Reijirou looked as if his world was falling apart. Somehow he knew that wasn't the real question, or at least it wasn't the heart of the matter. "That's not important," he began in subtly comforting tones. "Something else is bothering you, what is it?"   
"Just answer my question," Reijirou snapped.   
"No, I will not." Nuriko's tone was firm but not forceful. "That's not the problem. What _is_ the problem?"   
"IT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM!" For the second time in five minutes Reijirou exploded off the bed, but this time he swung hard and fast at the person he was exploding at.   
Nuriko easily ducked the out-of-control punch and grabbed Reijirou's wrist, pulling him off-balance and yanking his arm up behind his back, making Reijirou cry out in pain. "No, it's not," he said easily. "Now, what happened last night?"   
"_Let me go you shit!_"   
"Answer me first."   
"DAMNIT! All right!" Reijirou calmed down, forcing himself to take slow, deep breaths, settling down into the least painful position he could manage to find. "Last night, Risako called me at work and asked if I'd take her to a party her friend Chomei was giving because her parents wouldn't let her go anywhere alone."   
"Smart of them."   
"We get there and I don't know anyone, she gets swept away by some of her friends from soccer. I sit on the couch by myself. Then Chomei sits down and we start to talk. It's going all right and I figure the night may not be a total waste, but then Chomei starts hitting on me."   
_Ah-hah._   
"I get away as fast as I can, find Risako, and tell her to do whatever it takes to keep him away from me. She pushes me back into his line of sight and he starts approaching me again, but before he can get there she… she pulls me down and kisses me."   
"What?" Nuriko stared at the back of his head in disbelief. "All this moping and fussing over _one kiss?_"   
"NO!" Reijirou finally managed to wrench out of Nuriko's hold, whirling and glaring at the person who _should_ understand him better than anyone in the world. "Now I don't know! THAT'S the problem!"   
"Don't know what?"   
"Don't know what I should be doing, that's what! I don't know if I should like guys or girls or green tentacle monsters from Mars! I don't know if everything I've done 'til now is a lie or not! _I don't know what I should be doing!_"   
"Calm _down_ Reijirou," Nuriko commanded, pushing him back to sit in the desk chair that was still in the middle of the floor. "Calm down. Why should you doubt yourself?"   
Reijirou half-looked, half-glared wordlessly up at the seishi. That one look was all Nuriko needed to comprehend.   
"I see. Well…" Internally he was getting desperate. He'd never worked out his own problems in this area, so how was he supposed to help Reijirou? But he was probably the best they had. "Before… all this started happening, did you ever… think about a guy in… that way?"   
"No," he said mournfully. "And rarely girls," he added before Nuriko could put in words of encouragement. "That's part of it. Was all that just a scam? A cover-up? My way of hiding the fact that I liked guys? I was probably the least romantically-inclined person I knew in high school. Was that some sort of signal?"   
"Hey, come on," Nuriko said, trying to be cheerful. "It's all right to be a late bloomer. I knew some people who never bloomed at all, and they were perfectly happy. And other late bloomers, too. Usually they were the smartest, they knew they were really in love before they chose to spend their lives together."   
"Yeah," Reijirou agreed half-heartedly. "I don't know what some of my friends would have done if they married their first girlfriends…"   
"See? Smart. Is there some other reason you're… doubting things now?"   
Reijirou cringed, just a little, but Nuriko could easily detect it. It was exactly like his own, after all. "With the kiss…" Nuriko remained silent, waiting for him to speak. "With the kiss, I felt… stunned. I don't remember feeling anything else. No love, no like, no hate, no shame, nothing else."   
"Well, I don't blame you. It _was_ kind of abrupt." Nuriko sat down on the bed, watching him carefully. "Reijirou, truthfully, I don't know how to help you. This is one of those things you're going to have to figure out on your own."   
"Yes you can help me," he replied in a low tone.   
"How?"   
Reijirou looked up, sad and serious. "Do you love Hotohori?"   
Nuriko's eyes widened slightly, but he gave no other outward signal to his inner turmoil. He'd been trying to avoid this topic, but it had finally caught up with him. "Truthfully… I don't know. I _can't_ know," he cut in before Reijirou's protests could gain much momentum, "because I can't find out. Look." He sighed, shaking his head, absently reaching up to finger a strand of hair, all that was left of his once incredibly long braid. "I did. I loved him. And I died when I was changing. Would I have still loved him if I hadn't died, even with all the changes? I don't know. I'll never know if I'd have loved Miaka more than him, or the same, or if he would still be my universe. But you know all that. And now fate has given me another chance to figure it out - albeit under slightly different circumstances.   
"But I can't find out." He looked at Reijirou, and his eyes were just as serious and sad as Reijirou's own. "We're growing apart. You and I, we're being separated. We can't have that happen. Your uncertainty, my ignorance of this world… It's all combining to form a chasm between us, one that's getting bigger every day. We can't have that, because it could prove fatal. If we don't trust each other fully, with everything, if there is even a _suspicion_ of doubt… You could die. And I would vanish again, but this time I would vanish into oblivion. Never to be called again… Our soul might not even be reincarnated after you died." Reijirou gaped wordlessly. He hadn't known the extent of the death that would be suffered. "We can't have that, you know that as well as I. So we have to trust each other more than we've ever trusted anyone before. And I know if I'm in love with Hotohori that you… You wouldn't mistrust _me_, but your own uncertainty about yourself would get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and the trust would strain and fracture under that weight. You wouldn't be able to concentrate. Someone might end up dead, you, Kadiri, Gesshin, it doesn't matter, they'd be dead. So I've avoided finding out if I still love him, because I don't want to chance any of your lives. So please, if you want to keep us together…" Nuriko looked up. "Don't make me find out."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
They sped through the city, more dangerously than ever as Gesshin was at the wheel. Gesshin's total experience behind the wheel of a car came from the five hours Reijirou had spent one weekend teaching him to work the gearshift, brakes, gas, and turn signals. And he was too young to get a license legally. Gesshin's driving was probably, with the slight exception of getting attacked by Ashitare, the scariest thing Reijirou had ever endured.   
But Nuriko had forbidden him from driving, having rightly figured out that handling a car usually took a considerable amount of concentration - but unfortunately not having learned that the skill was acquired and Gesshin had never acquired it.   
"SLOWDOWNSLOWDOWNSLOWDOWN!" Reijirou pleaded.   
"FUCK OFF MAN!" Gesshin yelled at the driver of a taxi that was blowing his horn. The taxi driver was actually observing the speed limit. Gesshin was going at least thirty over.   
"RIGHT! YOU NEED TO BE IN THE RIGHT LANE!"   
"Oh yeah!" Gesshin commented, _extremely_ intelligently, and swerved suddenly into the right lane, without the benefit of signaling, nearly causing a multiple-car pileup.   
Reijirou cowered in the backseat, Nuriko next to him, praying heartily for his life.   
"Remind me never to let him do this again!" Nuriko yelled above the wind generated by Gesshin's speed. "We're gonna die here!" he moaned.   
"You _CAN'T_ die!"   
"Yeah, but YOU can! What a way to go!"   
Tasuki, of course, seemed to be just as enthusiastic about the life-and-death experiences as Gesshin was, whooping and cheering him on with many happy curses at the top of his lungs.   
When they screeched to a stop in front of Risako's building half an hour early, Reijirou could definitely smell the burned rubber coming off the tires. And they were still in the street. "All right! OUT!" He yelled, surging up from the backseat and giving Gesshin a shove that sent him tumbling into the passenger seat, straight through Tasuki. "You're NEVER driving my car again!"   
"It's a pieceuvshit anyway, ya say so yerself!" Gesshin protested, rubbing his head where it had banged against the door. "Why nooooooot?"   
"You're gonna KILL US, that's why!" Reijirou climbed into the front and sat down possessively in the driver's seat, taking pity on the poor abused vehicle and gently coasting to the nearest parking space. "Before you even _touch_ the wheel again we're having a LOT more driving lessons in nice, deserted parking lots."   
Before he could do anything, Gesshin had reached over and slapped the wheel. He was wearing a very fanged grin. "I touched it."   
WHAM. Reijirou's punch sent him tumbling over the door to land on his face on the concrete.   
Tasuki wisely stayed well out of the way as Reijirou exited, slammed the door, locked the car, and stalked into the building. Nuriko stayed behind to help the dazed Gesshin to his feet, hiding a smile: it hadn't gone _exactly_ the way he planned, but his little distraction had definitely gotten Reijirou out of his mood for a bit.   
Reijirou slammed the gate to the parking lot behind him with a loud, reverberating _clang_, not waiting for the other three. He was starting to stalk around the cars in the direction of the actual door to the building when a familiar voice reached his ears. "Reijirou-kun! Over here! Help, please!"   
He glanced to his right, in the direction of the voice, and saw Hoshiko waving in his direction next to a tiny maroon Honda. He didn't have anything against her, but he still grumbled under his breath, out of tune with the world in general, as he shuffled over to where she was. He didn't realize until he was about five feet from the car that Risako was in it, wrestling with several grocery bags, attempting to pull them out of the backseat without tearing them. He stopped dead in his tracks, fear replacing the intense confusion and anger he'd been carrying. He briefly considered running for it, but it would be kind of hard to as the fastest person he knew (Tasuki) and the strongest person he knew (Nuriko) were helping his best friend through the gate at that point. He forced himself to keep walking in the Daishis' direction.   
"Give us a hand, dear," Hoshiko said as he approached the car, pretending not to notice his hesitation. She also had grocery bags hanging from each hand, and was looking slightly anxiously at the open trunk of the car. Reijirou could see a large stack of folding chairs in there. "We brought these from the dojo in case we needed more chairs, can you bring some up for me? Oh, Gesshin-kun, can you help?" she called over his shoulder.   
He turned to see Nuriko barely catch Gesshin as Tasuki's grip on him abruptly dissolved in the shock of actually _seeing_ Subaru. "HOLY FUCKIN' HELL!"   
"You always were one for being blunt. Gesshin-kun, please?"   
As much as he protested and vehemently denied it, Gesshin really _was_ a gentleman and typically unable to resist a plea from a female. He struggled to his feet, still a little punch-drunk from being flattened by Reijirou, threw of Nuriko's arm, and walked over to the trunk without being told what to do, and pulled out a couple of chairs.   
Reijirou, however, wasn't in any mood to be helpful. "Why isn't Ryobe-san doing this?"   
"He's cleaning upstairs," Risako answered as she pulled herself out of the car. "Mom got him to wear a frilly apron!"   
"Glad I'm not married to her," Reijirou muttered. Fortunately Hoshiko had already started to the door and couldn't hear him - or if she did, she ignored it. Risako gave him a bit of a puzzled look and started after her mother.   
"Na, why don' ya two help?" Gesshin looked pointedly at Nuriko and Tasuki, but mostly at Nuriko. "Ye're freakin' strong, ya could do this all at once."   
"I can hear it now… 'HELP! HELP! THERE'S BIG 'EAVY THIN'S FLOATIN' SIX FEET IN TH' AIR!' " Tasuki pitched his voice incredibly high to imitate a panicky female, grinning all the while and dancing around.   
"_SHUT UP!_" Reijirou roared at him, about out of his daily allotment of patience, especially with his ragged nerves. Tasuki stared at him wide-eyed, Gesshin dropped both his chairs in surprise and whirled to see what was happening, and Nuriko was beginning to look depressed again. Reijirou said nothing, just grabbed the chairs Gesshin had dropped and stalked off to the door.   
He went up the stairs and to the apartment door, which he kicked at a bit too hard, leaving a minor dent near the bottom. He didn't care. Risako opened the door, a darkly curious look on her face that he paid no attention to. He brushed past her and into the apartment. "Where does your mother want these?" he snapped, indicating the chairs.   
"Just put them down there," she said, gesturing vaguely at the floor. He dropped them with a clatter and started back to the door, but was stopped by a hand gripping his wrist. He glared down at Risako. "What are you doing?"   
"I think we need to talk."   
"No we don't, now let me go," he said, panic once again beginning to well up in him.   
"Yes we do. Now." She spoke in low tones, no doubt to keep below the hearing of her mother. She didn't give him a chance to protest, simply turned and dragged him back in the direction of her room. He glanced helplessly at the door, wishing desperately for _some_ form of help, even Tasuki at that point. But none came, and he reluctantly followed her.   
Risako turned into her room and stood in the middle of the floor, arms crossed, a surprisingly calm expression on her face. "Have a seat," she said when he entered. He glanced around as he sat on the bed, still the only type of "seat" in the room. She'd cleaned since the last time he'd been in there; the floor was now visible and the only sign of dirty laundry was the toe of a sock sticking out of her hamper in the corner. The post-it notes on the walls seemed to have bred and multiplied as well, but other than that there wasn't a whole lot of difference. She closed the door, shutting off the sounds of the vacuum cleaner that were coming from down the hall, and dropped onto the bed next to him without any hesitation. He had to control himself to not scoot away.   
"What's wrong with you?" she asked bluntly. "One kiss shouldn't be enough to send you that far over the edge. Especially a kiss that didn't _mean_ anything."   
"That's…" He trailed off before he could really begin. It wasn't the type of thing he wanted to discuss with anyone, let alone Risako. "That's none of your business."   
"You're damn wrong, it _is_ my business. I didn't mean to, but I guess I made it my business last night." She looked up at him, suddenly tired. "Do you hate me _that_ much?"   
"What? No! I don't hate you at all! It's just-" He brought himself to a halt again, but Risako wouldn't take the hint.   
"It's just what?"   
"I don't have to answer," he snapped.   
"Yes you do. What. Is. It?"   
This was so much worse than Nuriko. Nuriko understood him better than almost anyone else. He could talk to Nuriko more easily than anyone. Risako was not Nuriko. But he wasn't able to hold up under her persistence any better than he could hold up under Nuriko's. "I'm confused."   
"About what?" The snappish, demanding note had dropped out of her voice.   
"…Things."   
"Well that helps none. What 'things'?"   
"About…" His face flushed redder than it ever had in his life, and he ducked his head to hide it. "About whether I should like guys or girls," he mumbled.   
Nonetheless, she heard it. "The hell? Why would you be confused about that? Is this because of Nuriko?"   
He nodded, almost too ashamed to go on.   
"Well, shit, _that's_ a no-brainer."   
"What?" He glanced up, confused.   
Risako just sat there, plainly looking as if she thought Reijirou was being an exasperating ninny. "You like who you like. That's it, that's all, close the case, retire the jury. Nothing more, nothing less." She shook her head. "You weren't much into the romance life in high school, were you?"   
"No, I had other things to do."   
"There's your answer. You don't like _anyone_ yet. Lemme clue you in on something, hot shot: you were considered prime material back then. Probably still are."   
"The hell does _that_ mean?"   
Risako grinned mischievously. "You were what some girls called a 'good catch.' Not a bad student, great athlete, likable, well-liked, well-known, lots of other qualities. I'm not gonna tell you just how many people had crushes on you at some point or another. Even I did, at one point." She blushed faintly pink at admitting that.   
Reijirou blinked in surprise. "You did?"   
She nodded. "Uh-huh. Me and half the females in our class. I got over it though, fell for someone else." She gave him a little grin. "Then realized he was an idiot. But it's not about me, it's about you. You don't care now, and that's fine. You'll know when you do. And it may be a girl, it may be a guy, who cares. If you like a girl at one point it doesn't mean you should _always_ like girls, and vice versa. So stop trying to label yourself and just live your life."   
"Oh… Thanks, I think…"   
"Feel a little better at least?" she asked, the slightest hint of concern in her voice.   
"Yeah… Surprisingly, yeah…" He nodded slowly, a slow grin spreading over his face. "You just made a whole lot more sense in a few words than Nuriko did in two hours."   
Risako laughed, and suddenly it was the best sound in the world to him. He'd been afraid he'd made her so mad she'd never forgive him. "I'm a girl. Nuriko _does_ make a very _convincing_ girl, but there's still some differences."   
"Yeah, not to mention you're not a thousand years out of practice."   
"Nah, only one. Come on, let's go wait for the others." Risako levered herself off the bed and to her feet. "You're the first, but this group seems to like showing up early. And was it just my imagination or was _Gesshin driving?_"   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou, in a much better mood that he refused to explain to Nuriko, helped Gesshin bring up the last of the chairs. He personally didn't think they were needed, as people seemed to like sitting on the floor just fine, but he wasn't about to argue with Hoshiko - she was making sandwiches and using a knife that looked way too pointy for his own liking. But they were only going to set them up if it was necessary.   
The speaker buzzed about five minutes after their last trip to the parking lot, and Risako trotted over to answer. "Who is it?"   
"It's Miaka and Taka!" Miaka's chipper voice replied. "We're here!"   
"Great! You remember which number, right?"   
"Yeah, we'll be up in a minute!"   
Hoshiko came out of the kitchen, carrying a plastic platter with sandwiches arranged on it that she placed on the coffee table. "Was that Miaka-chan?"   
"Hai. She'll be here in a second."   
Ryobe burst out of his and Hoshiko's bedroom, half-blind. The cause of the blindness was very apparent: the frilly apron (that Reijirou and Gesshin got a big kick out of) was twisted around his head. "Get this damn thing OFF me!"   
Everyone else broke down in laughter, and it was a minute before Hoshiko could stand up straight and go to her husband's rescue. "Calm down, you're only making it worse!" She patiently unwound the apron, used to these strange occurrences. When she pulled it off everyone could easily see Ryobe's devilish grin right before he kissed his wife full on the lips. Reijirou wasn't sure the apron had been an accident.   
"They're like newlyweds," Risako muttered.   
A knock at the door made Hoshiko and Ryobe break apart as Risako stood again. "And commence phase one," Reijirou said under his breath to Gesshin as Risako opened the door.   
"Hi Miaka, hi Taka!" she greeted them as they stepped in the door, pulling off their jackets and kicking off their shoes.   
"Hello Risako, how are-" Miaka stopped abruptly as she caught sight of Hoshiko and Ryobe.   
"Miaka? What is it?" Taka paused in mid-sleeve to peer anxiously at his wife. When she pointed, he glanced in that direction, then quickly back. Then his brain caught up with his eyes and he jumped. "MASTER!"   
"Took you long enough," Ryobe remarked with good-natured kidding.   
"Subaru-san!" Miaka cried happily, running forward to hug the older woman.   
Hoshiko smiled and hugged her back tightly. "I told you everything would be all right, didn't I?"   
"Phase one completed," Reijirou remarked. Gesshin just gave him a strange look.   
Small group by small group, the rest filed in in the next few minutes. Soi still looked a bit annoyed, but Kadiri was doing something Reijirou would have sworn she'd never do - looking like a love-struck girl. Murai, Mitsukake, and Setsuko filed in, apparently discussing the perils of driving in the city (Reijirou gave Gesshin a significant look). Morin, Hokusai, and Chichiri barely paused in their intense and spirited debate on some book or other to say hello, while Hotohori and Suezo greeted everyone cordially and friendly, stopping to chat with Risako. Yui and Tetsuya were immediately swept up in the multi-way conversation between Miaka, Taka, Hoshiko, and Ryobe. Amiboshi, Suboshi, Katai, and Shirai snuck in at the last second, the modern twins looking fairly guilty about something everyone chose to ignore.   
At two Risako grabbed the phone off its stand and waved her arms for attention. "Hey! Everyone! Quiet!" The hubbub gradually died down as people realized what was about to happen. When it was finally gone, Risako tapped in Chomei's number on the keypad, then put it to her ear and waited. A minute passed before she started talking. "Hey, Chomei-kun, it's Risako. What? Oh no, the party was fine! No, we were just busy. Ne, you wanna come over now? No, Mom and Dad don't care. About 15 minutes? All right, see you then." She brought the phone down and pressed the button, ending the conversation. "About fifteen minutes, as you all heard the first time. What now?"   
"Now it's my turn," Tetsuya said, trying to politely shoulder his way through the throng. Risako handed him the phone when he got close enough, and he dialed the bookstore. "Daisuke, it's me. Is Keisuke there? Yeah, give it to him." A pause. "Keisuke? We're all set over here. Leaving now would be a good idea. Of course I do. All right. We'll be waiting." He hung up and gave the phone back to Risako, who put it back in the receiver. "About twenty minutes, maybe less, depending on traffic."   
"Ne! Sandwiches!" Miaka cried.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
It was more like twenty minutes before Chomei's bus pulled up at the closest stop to the Daishis' building and Chomei alighted. Risako and Reijirou, who were spying on him through the gate to the parking lot, spun and raced back upstairs to the apartment. The door opened for them and they dashed inside, only slightly winded. "He's on his way! Anyone have any clue what's going to happen?" Risako asked.   
"He might be frightened away if this many people are on the other side of the door," Hokusai said sensibly. "Maybe most of us should hide."   
"But it would probably scare him more to have ten or so unknown people simply pop out of the woodwork," Murai countered. "It sounds like something out of a horror movie already; let's not make it any worse."   
Next to Reijirou, Risako groaned. "Oh, honestly, all of you. You're a group of reasonably intelligent people who sound like you're making a decision about a game of hide-and-seek. _I'll_ go out and prep him. Come on Reijirou!" She ran to the door without a backward glance, leaving a slightly overwhelmed Reijirou to scramble after her.   
"She's _your_ daughter," he heard Ryobe say as the door closed behind him.   
They ran, one after the other, down the same steps they'd shot up just minutes before, their thudding feet echoing time and time again on the metal stairs and making it sound as if there were a troupe of soldiers instead of two teens. They both jumped the last two stairs and landed with respective thuds on the floor before Risako reached for the door. She started to open it, but Reijirou leaned forward and pushed it closed again. "One question."   
"What?"   
"Why the mad dash?"   
She shrugged. "I don't know. Come on!" She tugged open the door again and dashed out, but didn't get three feet before she collided with something large and soft and fell on her rear.   
"Risako-san, are you all right?" Chomei asked, reaching down to help her to her feet once again. "You're not hurt?"   
She accepted his proffered hand and pulled herself up again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing new." Reijirou stayed quietly in the background, halfway through the still-open door. Regardless of whether he'd solved his problem or not, regardless of whether Chomei'd believed Risako's trick the night before, the older boy still made him nervous. It was a feeling he just couldn't shake no matter what he tried.   
Risako dusted herself off and smiled brightly at Chomei. "Well, go on! Everyone's waiting upstairs, you'll get to meet some new people."   
"You're not coming?" Chomei asked in surprise.   
"No, Mom asked us to go to the store."   
"Us?" Chomei looked up for the first time since the door opened, and Reijirou barely kept from retreating through the door as they made eye contact for the first time that day. "Oh… Hello…" Poor Chomei's tone had dipped from amusement to sadness so fast that it actually almost hurt. _He must… actually like me,_ Reijirou thought with a mental shudder. He really was sorry that the person Chomei liked couldn't return his feelings, that was always a sad situation, but why did that person have to be _him?_ His life was complicated enough as it was!   
"Hi…" _Oh so brilliant a reply, ye Master of Wit._   
"Well… See you two when you get back." Chomei started forward and Reijirou stepped out of the door to let him pass, determinedly not watching him.   
When the door clicked shut he sighed with relief. "What's all that about the store?"   
"Convenient believable lie. What's going _on_ with you two?" Risako asked crossly. "I kinda hoped you two'd get along better than this."   
"When he's got the world's biggest unrequited crush?! You're dreaming."   
"It's not THAT bad!"   
"Watch him! It is!"   
"Oh, I give up on you," she huffed, turned away from him and flinging her hands in the air in exasperation.   
"Fine, do that then."   
The door opening behind them cut off their bickering, and they both looked to see Gesshin, then Kadiri emerge from the stairwell. "We got a message fer ya," Gesshin announced in his direct manner. "Ye're s'possed t' wait here an' tell Keisuke an' Daisuke where t' go when they get here."   
"Hey, Risako, could I talk to you for a minute?" Kadiri asked, stepping past Gesshin. "It's kind of important."   
"Sure Kadiri. What is it?"   
"Umm… in private?"   
Risako tilted her head at the older woman, but Kadiri gave no other reply. After a minute, Risako shrugged. "Okay."   
"Thanks." Kadiri grabbed Risako's arm and nearly hauled her back into the stairwell, the door flapping shut behind them.   
Gesshin shook his flame-colored head. "Women. Always gotta be mysterious an' shit. 'm never gonna understand 'em."   
"Are any of us?" Reijirou shot back.   
"Guess not." Slowly, a fanged grin spread over Gesshin's face. "Na, wanna scare 'em?"   
Reijirou looked at him suspiciously. He'd learned never to trust that grin. "How?"   
"Jus' barge in on 'em! They start shriekin' so quickly! Then we make a break fer it so they don' bash our noses in." He grimaced uncomfortably at the thought of that painful action.   
"Well…" Reijirou didn't trust the grin, but it didn't mean he never went along with it (in fact, most of the time he did). And he owed Risako for thinking that it'd be _easy_ for Chomei and him to be friends in their situation. And it sounded like fun. "I guess, but _you're_ taking the blame for _your_ idea."   
He grinned that same grin. "Sure man."   
"When?"   
"On three." Gesshin and Reijirou both settled themselves into start-off positions, aiming for the door. "'Un… two… three!"   
They charged, according to plan.   
The door got closer, according to plan.   
The door opened. Not according to plan.   
Reijirou had taken the lead at the beginning and so nearly fell over as he passed through the space the door _should've_ been in but no longer was. In fact he was off-balance enough for a pair of hands to grab the back of his shirt before he realized they were there, and throw him in the general direction of a door he'd seen before but never paid attention to. It was open now, showing that it was little more than storage space for car parts resting on dusty shelves, but at that moment he couldn't care less about the décor. Instead, he cared about the extra force the helpful hands had given him, making him unable to brake before crashing into the shelves at the back of the mini-room.   
A shout came, indistinct to his slightly ringing ears, then some noises that sounded like feet scraping briskly along the floor, then more jumbled words and then a slam and the disappearance of most of the light. Reijirou straightened up and shook his head vigorously before looking around. The door had been closed, and there was someone else in there.   
Risako.   
They both stared at each other with blank horror on their faces, then began pounding on the steel door. "LET US OUT! LET US OUT NOW OR YOU'RE DEAD!"   
"Sorry!" came Kadiri's annoyingly perky new tone of voice - which was only annoyingly perky because she was being incredibly mischievous. "Not yeeeeeet!"   
Reijirou grabbed the handle and shook it violently. It didn't budge.   
They were locked in.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Okay, you may attempt to maim me NOW. ~takes off running and dives into her impenitrable Armory, slamming, locking, and barring the doors~ I fully expect a lot of people to be frustrated by this chapter, and it's making me grin in devilish delight ~grins~ '^_^' See the horns?   
REMEMBER! I HOLD NO EPIPHANIES TO BE SET IN STONE! If you're irritated/frustrated/annoyed/ticked off/angry/anything else at something in this chapter ~is thinking of three sections specifically~ remember that this is me we're dealing with. I'm the one that likes to torture readers with twists. Nothing is set in stone. Wellllllllll, a couple things, like the whole if-incarnation-dies-while-seishi-is-called-then-there-will-most-likely-not-be-another-incarnation thing, are set, but noooooooooot much else ^_~ Go ahead and attack me, I am ready! ~holds up the sakabatou~   
Whoooooooo, my birthday's Saturday! ~dances happily~ Man, hard to believe I've been here almost fourteen months, isn't it? Well, it's true, joined right at the end of September last year. Sheesh... This story, and Market, are over a year old. In fact, this one's a couple month's older than my ff.n obsession. But I still love writing them, so it's great. Love you all! Bye! 


	25. Chapter 25

  
DISCLAIMER: I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm sick, no creative disclaimer tonight. I just don't own this.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry sorry sorry! Sorry it's been so long since an update (ANY update), but I wanted to get 26 finished and for some reason it just. Wouldn't. Work. Of course, kinda not having the plot pre-planned when beginning to write a chapter'll kill ya everytime... Don't do that, it just causes problems if you aren't on an Inpirational Tsunami.   
Let's see, what's going on with Kaze-chan. Okay, finished my fall semester and took my finals (no idea what grades I got in the classes though, although I'm guaranteed at least three A's - it's Physics I'm worried about). I bought the new FY artbook they have out in English - be warned if you buy it that there are quite a few typos. The funniest one is that on the map all the countries are mislabeled! Suzaku's standing in Sairou and Byakko in Hokkan! I've also acquired Eikouden, the "limited edition" version, whcih means I've gt a set of really cool pictures now. Also, I've been accepted to the colleges I applied to, one of which is my Dream School, so I'll be going there next year (YA-HAA!). I'm completely broke - my net worth right now is 3 cents and 6 coke tabs. Seriously. Oh, and a bit of yarn. Christmas is just around the corner, and this year I've had more than usual to pay for - not just stuff for my father and my friends, but also more than one Secret Santa present, charity donations, required spending for clubs... I budgeted the same amount of money as last year and it just didn't work out. At least I learned my lesson. All right, not much else to say, so on to replies!   
Skittles, ahh, you're first again! ^_^ Looks like you've memorized when I post. Thanks soooo much for saying it wasn't confusing or fast or anything, and thanks for the happy birthday! ^_^   
Stormlight, you have nooooooo idea ~grins~ Kadiri and Gesshin are quite entertaining. And yeah, maybe you do have pure dumb luck! That would definitely explain it!   
Arashi, I hope it's been long enough (and post-less enough) to let you finish that paper! And I hope you got a good grade on it despite my interference! ^_~ Thanks for thinking that Reijie's thinking is logical, but HENTAI! ~whacks her arm~ Although that line made my day... And the Gesshin line was wroooong, just wrooooong. Although if you ask nicely I'll release him to you to do what you wish ^_~ I just need him back for when he needs to be in the story!   
Zerianyu, you know I got that review twice? I know, I know, it's not soon - I tried, it just didn't work. And it _was_ a bad spot, but at least it's not like the end of 8 where the main character's DYING...   
KRIS! You hurt and I repossess! I admit, he needs to get some brains knocked into him, but give him a break! He keeps getting the stuffing knocked OUT of him! And you are NOT going to do more, you're not even going to hit him! Yeah, he needs some stability - Nuriko seems to have handed down his "whirlwind through life" attitude, except it didn't come out in quite the same way. And that was a very weird idea, but somehow I don't think it'd work. ~grins~ And you know the rest.   
Chibigreen, angsting is a VERY good word! Since more than half the stuff I write has to deal with some sort of angst, I've adopted many forms of the word. Let's add this to the list ^_~ And yes, Gesshin driving _is_ amusing and heart-attack-inducing, isn't it?   
Elwing, you... sorta guessed wrong. Sorry. And you called me chica! It's been awhile since anyone's called me that, and I happen to like it ^_^ Good memories. It's makes me so happy to hear that you can't stop reading! It's exactly what I aim for! And the roommates bit is amusing ^_^ I'm gonna have to deal with that next year... Yeah, you got it right, and I'm happy that you said you found that scene lacking (I wish people would tell me what was wrong!). Unfortunately that scene got written on "burn out," so it was pretty much a force-words-on-paper part. I want to try and make it better, but when I get the chance is another matter...   
Hotohori Fan, yeah, cute guy who's gay! ~grins~ After finally being able to work with Chomei, I can tell that I, at least, like him - he's complex. He's also not dumb, which raises his points significantly. ~grins~ And I'm glad you like Kadiri - no doubt about it, the chick's got her head in the right place and the guts to knock those males into -their- places. Not bad for someone with a dead-beat mom.   
Draconsis, thanks for clearing that up for me ^_~ And thanks for not killing me!   
Flying heart, where are the typos? Most likely I'll miss them again, so it's a really big help when people point them out. Yes people, POINT OUT MY TYPOS! I want to fix them at some point! And glad to see SOMEONE agrees with me about cliffhangers! I swear, I must be reamed the most of anyone for leaving off at Important Points ^_^ It's fuuuuuuun.   
elfofthemeadow, wow, three days?! O.O I didn't know I'd written so much! Market's much more of the "epic" type so I'm used to the two-days to read it thing in association with that story, not this one. Wow, that's cool. And check at the bottom for ages.   
Zero Phoenix, thanks! I think I'll steal that phrase, it's cool ^_^ And yeah, wouldn't it just be fun to watch them cause havoc? Hehehehehehehehe...   
J. Liha, keep your dirty thoughts over in Market where someone ~coughcoughTokakicouch~ can appreciate them! Yes, I'm sure I'm not writing a lemon! ^_~ And somehow I KNEW you'd like it, you little hentai ~grins~   
Gack! Someone reviewed without leaving their name! And they gave so many compliments that I want to respond with a lovely big glomp but I can't unless I know who it is! If it's yours, please tell me and you can get glomped next time!   
Evil Hunter... Wow. WOW. Wow, that floored me. That was honestly one of the coolest reviews I've ever gotten. Reading too much into things can cause great fun and makes you invent explanations! Go right on doing it if you want to! I love it when people come up for explanations of my stuff! Wow! That was... wow. Thank you for all the lovvvvely comments and the attempt to explain the general fascination with the Reijirou/Risako pairing - I think I understand it now! (And yeah, I honestly didn't know - before, I've just mainly been confused ^^;;; Sorry! You're great!) And you are the only person who picked up on the Adam fact - wonderful, that's great!   
Okay, now that that's over, let's just get on with the story.   
  


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"Boiling oil?"   
"Have it."   
"What about poison mushrooms?"   
"Already got poison period, but mushrooms are different. Thirty-six."   
"Death by silkworm?"   
"That's good, if we could figure out how to do it."   
"This is gonna take us a long time."   
"Yeah, but what else've we got to do?"   
Reijirou and Risako were sitting back-to-back in the storage closet, leaning against each other since neither of them was quite willing to lean against the shelves and get dust all over their clothing. Pounding on the door had done them absolutely no good; Risako had explained with a sigh that somehow Gesshin and Kadiri had managed to lock them in at a very low-traffic time. There was one bulb in the tiny room, but it was of very low intensity, just bright enough to keep people from walking into things as they entered the room, and not much light was let in by the cracks around the door. Their eyes had adjusted, but it was still a strain to see things. The weird shadows cast by the various things sitting on the shelves didn't do much to help the imagination, either. To keep themselves firmly grounded in something besides nebulous fears, they'd started playing "One Thousand and One Ways to Kill Kadiri and Gesshin."   
They were only on thirty-seven.   
"How long's it been?" Reijirou asked for what felt like the thirtieth time.   
Risako held her watch close to her face to read it. "Seventeen minutes. A minute and a half since you last asked."   
"Graaaaaaaaaaah, what can they hope to accomplish?!" Reijirou yelled in frustration, kicking out with his right foot and sending a bucket skittering across the floor and into the wall with a metallic clang. "Why the hell did they _do_ this?!"   
"Oh, think, Reijirou," Risako drawled, unusually sarcastic. "Why do people _normally_ shove their friends in closets?"   
"I've been trying to avoid that option," Reijirou grumbled uncomfortably. The thought had crossed his mind, many times, but he preferred not to think about it. And if that really _was_ the reason, then those two pranksters deserved an even bigger pummeling than they were gonna get in the first place…   
"I mean, come on," Risako continued, almost light-heartedly. "I've done it to _my_ friends. There's really no other reason than to hook up two people-"   
"Yeah, but not US!" Reijirou groaned, his head falling into his hands. "Bakayarou, they're gonna _die_ for this…"   
"What, make you uncomfortable Reijie-chan?"   
"Don't call me that."   
"Sorry, this place is getting to me."   
"Like hell it is, you're just as bad as the two of them."   
She snorted. "Not when it comes to things like this. Are you sure you can't get through that door?"   
He groaned again. "For the twentieth time, NO. It's reinforced _steel_ Risako, and I sure as hell ain't Nuriko."   
"Well, actually-"   
"Don't say a word, just don't say it."   
"A word."   
"Oh lord, here we go again…"   
"Hmm, death by puns?"   
"Hey, that's a pretty good one."   
"Thank you."   
Thirty-eight down, nine hundred sixty-three to go…   
"Heyyyyyy, death by closet-shoving!"   
Risako turned slightly to stare at him over her shoulder, puzzled. "What?"   
Reijirou grinned wickedly. "We put 'em in a closet together. A _real_ closet, smaller than this thing. Eventually they'll kill each other!"   
"The ultimate revenge!"   
"Exactly! I can picture it now…" Reijirou tipped his head back, a smile reminiscent of a gourmet chef tasting his specialty dish on his face as he watched the scene unfold on his eyelids. "Gesshin'll pull out the tessen… and Kadiri will just be _waiting_ to electrocute him for getting her in that mess… All this after a very loud cuss-fight of course."   
"Oh, of course," Risako agreed, a similar grin on her face.   
"It'll all start off with Gesshin saying 'This's all _ye're_ fault, ya damn stupid woman!' "   
Risako smothered a giggle. "You've spent too much time around him, you just sounded exactly like him."   
"Thank you, it takes practice. And then Ka- It's starting," he stated abruptly, sitting up straight and staring at the ceiling, completely serious and with no hint of joking in his voice. "They're starting to summon Chiriko…"   
"Huh? How do you know?" Risako asked, straightening up from where she'd fallen when Reijirou had suddenly moved, brushing dust out of her hair.   
It was a slightly creepy sight she saw: Reijirou's eyes were half-closed and his gaze was directed at the ceiling, and the minimal light in the room made him look both pale and sunburned all at once. She couldn't help shivering slightly at the sight. "I can feel it." His voice, at least, was still normal, if slightly spacey. "I just do… They're drawing on our power to call him…"   
He was starting to creep her out more than a little. She knew _exactly_ what he was talking about, of course, but that didn't make it seem like anything less than something out of a horror movie. "All right… If you say so…"   
"Hey, I can see it!" He closed his eyes all the way, a look of complete amazement on his face. "There's Miaka, and there's Daisuke - how'd he and Keisuke get by without them hearing us? - and Chichiri, and Hokusai, and Nuriko, and- Whoa, here comes Chiriko!... It's all the smoke!... I never actually got to _see_ it before… There's this red light, it's all over the place, and… Wait, there's _two_ light sources? The book and… and… damnit, where's the other one from? Oh, here comes the smoke disappearing… and… explosion! Whoa, that was so cool! Too bad you couldn't see it Risako, but you've seen others… Risako?"   
Risako couldn't answer. She had fallen over onto the floor, gasping for breath.   
"RISAKO!" he shouted, his voice echoing many times in the small room's confined space. "RISAKO! SPEAK TO ME!"   
She didn't respond. Reijirou pulled her up and turned her over, revealing her ashen face and shallow, short breathing, more a rasp than an actual drawing of breath. She looked, and sounded, very, very bad…   
"What should I do what should I do what should I do what should I do?" he chanted as he raced through the first aid steps he'd learned in his physical education classes. This wasn't a sprain, this wasn't dehydration, this wasn't a heart attack - or was it? No, it couldn't be, she was much too young. _So what could it be?!_ What could he do?!   
He grimaced as he hit on the one thing that might help her, but could very well have her killing him in the aftermath. "Please don't take this the wrong way Risako…" He carefully laid her down on the floor, watching her breathing become more and more shallow every second. Tilting her head back and propping her mouth open, he started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.   
After the three rounds of the required five breaths, he sat back to look at her, then began panicking. It wasn't helping, it wasn't helping, _it wasn't helping!_ He had completely forgotten that mouth-to-mouth didn't have any effect unless the patient had already stopped breathing; he was grasping at straws.   
And they tumbled through his fingers.   
"NURIKOOOOOOOOOO!"   
  


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"Huh?" The purple-haired seishi looked quickly behind him, momentarily startled from his transfixion of watching Daisuke greet a boy who was fully more than half a foot shorter than him. He could've sworn he heard something…   
"What is it Nuriko?" Hotohori asked quietly next to him.   
Nuriko shook his head, wondering if it was possible for a ghost to have auditory hallucinations. "I… I don't know. I thought I heard something…"   
"Maybe you did," the ex-emperor replied just as quietly, taking a quick glance around the main room. "Have you seen Reijirou-san lately?"   
"Not since he and Risako went down to wait for Chomei… Which was awhile ago… Where are those two anyway?"   
Hotohori nodded slightly, a piece of hair slipping into his eyes. "We don't just 'hear things'. Usually it's the other you that you hear."   
"So you're saying I heard Reijirou?" Nuriko queried. At Hotohori's nod, he continued. "So what do I do?"   
"Find him," Hotohori replied simply. "I'll cover for you here."   
Nuriko nodded and quickly disappeared, finding his link with his modern counterpart and following the road it provided to land-   
-straight in the middle of a shelving unit. He blinked in the dimness and looked around. "Reijirou? You in here?"   
"Nuriko!" came the frantic response. "It's Risako! She's barely breathing and she passed out again!"   
"WHAT?!" Immediately the seishi knelt next to the girl, putting a hand on her forehead as if to check for fever. "Suzaku, this is not good."   
"NO SHIT! What do we do?!"   
"Calm down, I'll be right back." He disappeared again without even bothering to stand.   
Reijirou heard his own watch's second hand tick - once, twice, three times - until there was suddenly much more noise in the tiny room than either he or Risako were making. "Nuriko, what's going on? Chiriko's up there scared and confused and-" Mitsukake did _not_ sound happy.   
"-And Risako's PASSED OUT!" Nuriko yelled in the usually stoic healer's face.   
"Mitsukake, help me!" Reijirou pleaded, trying to lift Risako into a sitting position again, her head falling back against his shoulder like a doll's. "She fell over and she's barely breathing and nothing I did could help and-"   
Mitsukake placed his large, square hand on Reijirou's shoulder, and Reijirou could almost feel the calluses through his clothing. It shushed him instantly. "She's still alive. Don't worry. Here, let me see her." Reijirou nodded, and Risako was transferred from his grasp to Mitsukake's effortlessly as Nuriko watched, a worried frown pasted on his face. Risako's head still flopped back, but compared to the size of the man she was now leaning against she was tiny. Mitsukake gently laid her down, then held his left palm over her chest and closed his eyes, Nuriko and Reijirou crowding each other on her other side in order to see better. Their little shoving match was interrupted by the flow of green light that surrounded Risako, giving her an otherworldly appearance.   
The light danced wildly for a moment, flickering like a candle, and then Risako gave a great gasp and her eyes flew open, her upper body flying upright half a moment later, the ends of her hair whipping Reijirou in the face. She clutched a hand to her chest and gasped a few more times, half bent-over as if she'd just run an exhausting marathon. Nuriko quickly put an arm around her shoulders to steady her, letting her get her breath back.   
She gasped one last time, then took a shuddering breath and turned to face Mitsukake. "Did it…" she asked hoarsely. She swallowed, then tried once more. "Did it happen again?"   
He nodded, more serious than either of the two teens had ever seen him, even when he'd heard about Reijirou's wounding or Adam's death. "I don't know why," he said bluntly. "I can't tell what's happening to you." He turned away, and Reijirou could almost swear he saw a troubled expression on his face. "I just can't tell."   
"Will it happen again?" Reijirou asked in a subdued voice.   
"I don't know."   
  


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After Nuriko had undone the lock from the outside, the four of them had trooped back up the stairs to the Daishi apartment, Reijirou supporting Risako. She was still somewhat weak, and even though she had firmly insisted that she would have no problems walking, Reijirou had even more firmly insisted on giving her the extra help. As the stairs kept coming without many breaks her protests died down, and by the time they got to the apartment she looked exhausted.   
They let themselves in and passed unnoticed by the chaos in the main room, leaving Nuriko and Mitsukake there, heading down the hallway to Risako's bedroom. Reijirou gave the door a little kick to open it, and he helped the tired girl through and to her bed.   
Risako lay down gratefully, pulling the pillow over her eyes. "The light hurts…"   
"Just go to sleep," he said gently. "Sleep cures everything."   
"Like you're a doctor," she grumbled.   
"I'm an athlete with a long record of injuries. I know _something_ by now." He grabbed another pillow off the floor and tossed it at her. It rose in the air, then fell onto the pillow on her head with a gentle smack. She knocked it off with her fist impatiently, and it resumed its starting place on the carpet. "So that's why your room's so messy."   
"Reijirou?"   
"Yeah?"   
"Stuff it."   
He laughed a little, then turned and began finding a path through the fairly minimal obstacle course to the door. "I'll leave you to sleep. See ya."   
"Ne, Reijirou," she said quietly, her tone completely changed from her ornery one just seconds earlier. She almost sounded… timid. "You… you tried, didn't you?"   
He glanced back, confusion etched on his face, bangs swinging into his eyes. "What?"   
She hadn't turned to look at him or removed the pillow from over her head, but he got the feeling that she couldn't be paying more attention to him if she tried. "You tried to help me down there, didn't you?"   
"Well… well, yeah, you scared me half to death, just falling over like that. How could I not help?" He began retracing his steps to her bed, not quite sure what this was about. "I couldn't just let you lie there."   
"A lot of people would have… Thank you."   
He felt his face redden a bit. "You're welcome… Ah… I'm gonna go out there and see if anyone needs my help-"   
"Please don't," she said, more a question than anything else. "Sit down?"   
He glanced towards the door again, then slowly obeyed her request and pushed aside some books and papers to have a seat near the head of her low bed. He leaned somewhat uncomfortably against her wall, trying to avoid the pushpins that threatened to dig into his back with every move, still not quite sure what this was all about. "Are… are you okay, Risako?"   
To his surprise, she didn't answer. Instead, she turned onto her right side, facing the wall, her head still under the pillow, her body curling up like a nervous cat's. And unless he was severely mistaken, he was sure he heard her sniff.   
"Risako?" he asked, a little more urgently, raising himself to his knees so he could peer at her closely in worry. "Risako, are you all right?"   
"I'm such a chicken…" she spoke with a catch in her throat. "I'm such a horrible little frightened girl… I'm scared, I really am."   
He was silent for a minute before he could gather the courage to ask. "Scared of what?"   
"Of falling asleep…" she hiccuped, a hand digging under the pillow as if she were wiping away a tear. "What if… what if I don't wake up?"   
Reijirou didn't have any idea what to say to this.   
Risako just kept going, the words tumbling free like water through a broken dam. "What if I close my eyes and never open them again? Mitsukake didn't know what was wrong with me, what if it's something that can't be fixed? What if all of this is because one day soon I'm going to faint and he won't be able to revive me?"   
"Uh… well…"   
She pushed the pillow off her head with shaking hands and sat up quickly to face him, dark red hair spilling over her shoulders, eyes wide with something that could almost be hysteria. "I know I sound really stupid, but it's serious. This is starting to scare me! Once I can shake off as a freak accident, but _twice?!_ Maybe that's why my mother gave me up for adoption, she knew she had something fatally wrong with her that would cause her to die at a young age and didn't want me to-"   
"_Risako!_" Her crazy river of words stopped short at the tone in Reijirou's voice. But once he had her quiet he didn't know what to say or even think.   
Her fear wasn't entirely illogical, after all. Everyone had been worried about her when it had happened in the bookstore, but Mitsukake had reassured them all that she was all right. But it had happened a second time, with no basis that he could detect. What if it really was something wrong with her genes? Maybe Mitsukake, being about a millenium out of practice, couldn't tell if something that small was wrong with her…   
"Risako…" he found himself saying, although he couldn't remember telling his mouth to form any words, "it won't happen. I know what it's like." He did; he woke up with nightmares about the encounter with Ashitare at least twice a week now. Every time he could feel those awful natural daggers dig into his body, ripping it apart mercilessly… He'd wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, with Nuriko hovering in concern next to his shoulder. "I know what it's like to be scared like this. But you're like me; we're just too stubborn to die. At least not without a fight. And you know everyone out there will help you in any way they can."   
"I know." Her voice was small again, recovering from the jumbled outburst. "But I just can't help it…"   
"Is everything okay here?" came a new voice from the doorway. Reijirou turned quickly to see a rather tall silhouette framed there, one hand on the door handle. Taka was leaning half in the room, ready to shut the door if necessary. "Because I can leave if you want me to…" He wasn't teasing, just trying to be considerate.   
Reijirou threw a quick glance at Risako, but she had turned her head away so her hair fell about her face, concealing her expression, almost in shame. He looked back at Taka and nodded the older man into the room. Taka hurriedly shut the door and came to kneel next to Risako's bed, next to Reijirou, a bit of an ironic smile playing about his features. "Well, I have to say that nothing in graduate school prepared me for something like this… What's wrong, Risako?"   
She just shook her head, still keeping her face hidden, mostly turned to the wall. "Nothing's wrong."   
"Now that's the worst lie I've ever heard," Taka remarked casually, off-handed. "Worse than any of Miaka's, even, and that takes skill. Do you know why I became a teacher?" he asked unexpectedly.   
Risako turned her head slightly toward him, watching him out of the corner of her eyes. "Why?"   
"I could've done just about anything," he continued in the same light tone. "Been a basketball player or coach, gone into business with Keisuke and Tetsuya, even gone back to my family home and been a farmer, as my father is, and his father was, and so on and so forth. But I became a teacher for two reasons. One was a remnant of feelings from before I discovered who I was and something I knew I had to do - a need to know everything I could about a certain period of history from a certain place in the world, because for some reason I felt some sort of connection to it, as if I only partially belonged in the modern world. Of course, I figured out _why_ I felt like that after I found Miaka and learned about the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho and all, and then I realized that if anyone else felt the same way I had, I had to help them learn about it and sort it out for themselves. All that is one reason."   
"What's the second?" Risako whispered after a moment of quiet silence.   
"Yuiren," he replied immediately. "She loved to learn, although she didn't think of it as learning. She would 'discover' new things every day, and the look on her face when she did never ceased to fascinate me and make me feel proud, especially if I was the one who helped her along the way. And I couldn't bear to see her sad. Every time she was, I'd just pick her up and hold her for a long time until she forgot the sadness. I was so happy that she trusted _me_ enough to help her with everything, and all my siblings. In this world, only teachers can really affect more than a few people in all those ways. So I knew I had to be one."   
Risako slowly shook her head, a hand coming up to wipe at her eyes. "What does all this have to do with anything? I'm not Yuiren, or Gyokuran, or any of Tamahome's siblings. Why are you telling me this when it has _no_ reason?"   
Both she and Taka had almost forgotten that Reijirou was in the room as well, but he could see another smile twitching at the corner of Taka's mouth. "It does, though, don't you see? You don't have any siblings, do you?" She shook her head, still not looking at him. "And sometimes you feel uncomfortable talking to your parents, right?" Another silent answer, a nod this time. "Well, if you want to talk to someone with a bit more worldly experience than you have, I'm right here. I couldn't call myself a good teacher if I didn't help at least _one_ student during my career." He suddenly grinned mischievously. "You can bet I didn't do it for the enormous fortune found in the teaching field."   
Risako let out a strangled little laugh that sounded almost like a sob, pressing a hand to her mouth. "Trying to sound like Tamahome?" she managed to say around the laugh-sobs.   
"Why not? I _am_ him, after all." Taka stood, putting a hand on Reijirou's shoulder and patting Risako's head with the other. "Although I've gotta say I never knew I'd become _this_ involved with my students. You two come out when you're ready, all right? I'll make your excuses out there."   
"Thanks Taka," Reijirou said lowly to him, very grateful. Taka flashed him a very Tamahome-like grin, then crossed the piles of stuff on the floor and exited, closing the door behind him.   
"Well… I wonder how many rumors are gonna start from _this_," Risako said in an attempt at a joke.   
Reijirou laughed a little, nodding in agreement. "Kadiri for one… she'll jump on this."   
Risako nodded agreement, then turned her head to the wall again. Reijirou lowered his chin until he was studying the carpet. They fell into a distinctly awkward silence, both cursing it very colorfully in their minds but neither quite brave enough to break it with actual words.   
Fully three minutes passed with nothing breaking the silence in the room but their own breathing and the much-muted conversation from the living room. Those three minutes were about all Reijirou could take; he quickly stood, causing Risako to look at him, then back at the wall. "If you… won't be needing me…" _Damnit,_ he cursed, _I don't want to sound all stiff and formal!_ "I guess I'll be going back… Do some damage control… Can you…?"   
"Yeah," she replied, knowing his meaning without more of the question. "Taka helped… a lot. You can go."   
Reijirou knew she didn't mean it offensively; knew that she was just tired and overstressed - and he couldn't blame her for that; knew knew _knew_ that it wasn't what Normal Risako would say - but the tone of her voice was unconsciously like a master dismissing a servant. For some odd reason it hurt him. He just nodded stiffly, then followed their teacher's path out the door.   
She barely noticed his leaving, watching her fingers curl and uncurl in front of her face as she lay sideways on the mattress, but something inside plunged through an elevator shaft when the door closed with what sounded like an all-too-final 'click.' She shook her head as well as she could with half of it buried in the pillow, deciding she was just feeling fatalistic. Then she took a breath and closed her eyes, and allowed the sleep that had been clambering at her mind since Taka had left the room to claim her.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
_It was very… blue.   
Light rippled past like the sun patterns on the bottom of a pool on a bright summer day, sometimes bright, sometimes navy, sometimes midnight. There didn't seem to be a floor, or walls, or any confinement; but somehow none of the "water" escaped the place. It pressed in, smothering breath if there was need for it, but thankfully there wasn't. Instead, the closeness promoted a feeling of comfort and warmth, despite some of the icy hues racing past.   
About ten feet - if you could call them feet - ahead lay a body. The proximity should have made every feature clear, revealed whether the person had freckles or warts, what color clothes they were wearing, or if it was even a person at all. But the sight remained dim and very hazy; the most that could be detected was a subtle shift in the grays that cloaked the figure from head to foot, almost as if they were moving in and of themselves; living, breathing shades.   
And then the figure stood.   
It rose to a height for a tall human male, standing on two… things, not quite legs and not quite anything else. It spread two more of the appendages, which could be attached to things that could almost be shoulders, and the blob that could have been a head seemed to tilt back; or rather, the living grays seemed to give it the shadows of a head tilting back. And then-   
soundless explosion   
invisible light   
life to death to death to life   
negative color rushing in, filling the living grays with living color, easing the limbs into thicker, unmistakably human appendages, bright enough and dark enough to blind, and standing there was someone who had no business appearing in the dreams of anyone besides his family and friends.   
The blue sun lights reflected off blond hair that shone with an unearthly radiance, and the clothing seemed to flicker in and out of being between two very different sets - one of a simple red tee-shirt, a pair of jeans ripped at one knee, with worn black-and-white sneakers with pen doodles all over them, and a swirling cape, even longer hair and taller body, and very distinctive spikes that seemed to grow like demented vines from his - for he was definitely a male - shoulders. But no matter which outfit he was in, two things always remained the same.   
His eyes - hard yet sympathetic, showing an emotion of understanding and pity and sadness yet with the determination to see anything through, no matter what.   
And the blue "heart" kanji shining from his forehead.   
"Adam… Nakago…"_   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! HE'S BACK! IN A REALLY FREAKY WAY!   
Betcha weren't expecting that! I wanted to present a twist, and I hope I did it. Now all that's left is to find out why he's "there"!   
All right, elfofthemeadow has requested that I give everyone's age, so let's get started, youngest to oldest. Naora is EASILY the youngest at 4, with Reijirou's brother Hajime and Katai and Shirai all coming in at 14. Ijiri Mitsuyo, Gesshin's sister, is 15, and Gesshin follows his sister at 17-18 (he has his birthday SOMETIME during the course of the story - I am not sure when). Daisuke, Risako, and Adam all come in at 18, with Reijirou a very recent 19. Chomei is next at 20, then Chiaki at 21, and then Suezo at 22. Kadiri is 24, with Miaka, Yui, and Morin right after her at 25,and Hokusai next at 26. Taka is one of the eldest at 28, and Keisuke, Tetsuya, and Setsuko (Murai's wife) beat him at 30. Murai himself is 32, while Hoshiko and Ryobe round it out at 47 and 49 respectively. No one knows how old Akihiko is, but he seems to be in his mid-30s. I don't bother to give ages to non-reincarnates who don't show up much, such as the two police, but you can generally tell roughly what ages characters are if it's important. Hope that helps!   
Oh yeah, question for everyone - I basically know these people's abbreviated pasts and all that, so is anyone interested in seeing the background info for any character (actual seishi not inculded)? If so, just tell me which characters and I'll start adding them on in the notes down here.   
All right, I'm tired and achey and might be getting sick so I'm gonna go lie down. Love ya everyone! ~huggles~ 


	26. Chapter 26

  
DISCLAIMER: My current net worth is -$1.73. There's no way I own FY. Buuuuuuuuuut! I DO own an FY wallscroll now! WHOOOOOO!   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: For once, I've got some serious notes dealing with the story itself instead of just my wacked-out life. For a long time I was worried that Reijie wasn't "Nuriko-y" enough, if that makes sense - that he didn't act enough like Nuriko to really _be_ Nuriko. I am a firm believer in the idea that time/place/environment/life experiences shape you, so I expected _some_ deviation - it just wouldn't be natural otherwise. But for a long time I thought he was acting _too_ different, and I was worried that you guys would think so as well.   
He's not as easy a person to characterize as, say, Tasuki. I'm always pretty confident when I write Gesshin - not because Tasuki's not complex and deep in his own way, but because it's easier to predict his reaction to things. He's the kinda guy that's always gonna be fine the way he is in any society - Nuriko changes a freakin' heck of a lot more, so you get all these variations on his character. I ended up deciding to not worry about how I'm doing Reijie - to paraphrase Popeye, he is who he is and that's all that he is. I also decided that he'd act more like Nuriko when he doesn't have all these other stressful things going on around him - enough strain'll crack anybody, even Hotohori.   
Okay, second official note ~whips out sakabatou~ I demand that all of you, RIGHT NOW, go check out an author named Kryssa - the Best Kept Secret of the FY fanfiction world. Seriously, she is _wonderful_, and she doesn't get enough appreciation, readers, or anything. So people, GO READ BETWEEN SEISHI AND GODS - and don't forget to leave a review for her! ~waves sakabatou threateningly~ And Kris, I tollllllldja! ~griiiiiiiiins~ I just humiliated the seven suns outta ya, I know, but unfortunately Mouse beat me to the punch. But that doesn't mean I can't do it! You deserve it! PEOPLE GO READ HER STUFF!   
All right, I think I better clear something up - NAKAGO/ADAM IS NOT ALIVE. Thank you.   
Okay, review replies!   
Draconsis, whee! Hope you had a good Christmas ^_^ And got any to add to that list? ~grins~ I wanna make a list and stick it on my website!   
Zerianyu, don't worry, I like long! ^_^ And you get your wish, check at the bottom. Yes, I've seen Eikouden - in fact, I own two copies of it: one is the "official" English Pioneer product, the other is an import from China. The English subtitles on the Chinese one make me laaaaaaaaugh - they're SO HORRIBLE! ^_^   
Sano ~laughs helplessly~ You're right, it's wouldn't be fair! But actually, I had no idea I was gonna do that until I was literally in the middle of 25 - now I've got more surprises worked out! ^_^ Stick around and see. And e-mail me and we'll debate that topic in the future...   
Keimei, heyyyyyy! Glad to see ya again ^_^ The whole Risako-fainting thing is a mysteryyyyyyyyyy! And glad you liked Taka's speech - I actually tried to make Taka more Tamahome-like than he seemed in the OVA 1 & 2, because after all he's "one" or joined with Tama now, and I think that speech kinda shows it. And yep, it will be explained - right up front, with minimal delay! ^_^   
Kris - feet ^___________________________^ That's all I'm gonna say.   
Evil Hunter, you impress me again! Isn't being analytical fun? Yes, I am a Lit nerd, thankyouverymuch. Your theories are muuuchly appreciated - unfortunately, I can neither confirm nor deny anything! ^^;;;; Future plot point spoilers if I do. Trust me, _everyone_ wants to know what it's about - I haven't even told _Risako_ yet, and she's the one it concerns! So speculate away, I love hearing it! I just can't promise an answer! ^^;; And you're right about the initials thing - I realized that myself around chapter 24 ^_^ Coincidence is fun, ne?   
Chibigreen, in case you didn't see it, yes he is ^_^ He's more a _real_ ghost than anything else - a ghost that Seiryu's giving a few perks to. Detailed description below - ask if you've got any more questions ^_^   
J. Liha, yes, you, _hentai_ ~points at all the Market reviews as proof~   
Quickening (~grins~), glad you're glad he's back. And of course they're being stubborn! I've realized that pretty much any character of mine is going to be at least a BIT stubborn. And answers will come, answers will come eventually! And I SWEAR I'm going to get around to reading that IY fic you've got soon - when I don't forget ^^;;;;; My mind is a sieve, it's terrible!   
Flying heart, get off that damn malfunctioning school computer! ~grins~ Or at least on a non-malfunctioning one! And yes, another cliffhanger - you know me ^_~   
Hotohori Fan, where was the trip to? *interest interest* Interesting? ~grins~ It's really getting _twisted_, if ya ask me. And as I've said before, answers below.   
Skittles, it's okay, don't have a heart attack! ^_^ I had a sort of blah winter break, so I'm glad someone had a good one ^_^ And non-internet? Be still my racing, nervous heart!   
Wow, that went fast this time!   
  


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_"Adam…Nakago…"   
The shogun/college student nodded soundlessly, the focus of his eyes direct and penetrating, yet indicating some great sadness, as wide as an ocean, that could only be seen through tiny windows. His mouth opened and began to move, forming shapes that should have been recognizable as sounds, but in fact released nothing. His words instead came as not-sounds that penetrated into the brain, agonizingly beautiful and wonderfully piercing at the same time.   
"Yes, it's me," he said slowly, in that mind-to-mind "voice" which "sounded" like a recording of two extremely similar voices - Adam's and Nakago's - layered over each other, Adam's on top, and placed on reverb. "I can't be with you all now… I'm sorry. I was stupid, didn't watch out… and I paid the price."   
"No, it wasn't your fault, you didn't know what was coming!"   
"Yes. I did." He disregarded the startled gasp the response received and continued on, speeding up a bit as if he had to get the entire story out at once. "When I first saw Reijirou in class, something came to me. Even now I can't describe it accurately, although I now understand the full situation. At the time it was only a sudden realization that _we shared the same fate_, him and I, that the same thing would happen to us. A momentary epiphany that I quickly disregarded because of its complete illogic." The flowing ghost lowered his eyes, as if he couldn't stand to face any being at that point. "Maybe if I had learned to trust some of my more improbable instincts it would not have happened. Perhaps he would have been the one to die, instead…"   
"He… He_ couldn't _have died, Nuriko was with him, Nuriko sav-"   
"I couldn't stay away from him," Adam interrupted. "When I died, I deliberately chose to remain on Earth so I could save_ him_, and by extension every one of them that I had hurt so badly in the past… Nakago's penitence. I had to pay it myself. Seiryu was kind enough to allow Nakago to bond with me, even in the afterlife… We held Ashitare back that night."   
"You WHAT?!"   
The "voice" took a deliberate shift away from Adam's tones, approaching the much more authoritative tones of the Kutou Shogun, the body's form seeming to hold in the armor and cape just a tad longer than the red tee-shirt, which had until then been its primary garb. "In the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, I was uncontested as the most powerful man in the world. Perhaps the most powerful who had ever lived. No one and nothing could contest my power alone, and if Seiryu had not been sealed away by Suzaku no Miko in that last fight, I would no doubt control this world as well even now. Ashitare was only a speck in my sight, a good tool for some things but nothing beyond that, especially after we no longer seemed to need all of the Seiryu Shichiseishi alive to call our god. However, the afterlife combined with this world has cut my powers to a bare minimalist fraction of what they once were, and Ashitare has by some means even I cannot devise increased his power as well as become exponentially smarter.   
"I was there that night that Reijirou was attacked. I could not prevent it, much as I wished to," he murmured, hanging his head again. It was bizarre to see the Shogun so… remorseful. "I was far too weak on my own. With his prey right in front of him, Ashitare was a wolf; nothing could distract him from his kill. I finally managed to send Nuriko a subconscious thought as to how he could stop the attack, and the Suzaku seishi followed it. Nuriko combined with Reijirou and they managed to fight the wolf off and escape, running for the hospital. What they did not realize was that Ashitare was only unconscious for a few seconds, enough for them to turn the corner out of sight, but not far away enough to hide from his sense of smell. He would have followed and undoubtedly caught the pair before help could arrive if I had not confused his senses into following a trail that lead in the entirely wrong direction, with a strong dose of subliminal ki to prevent him from making his way to the area of the hospital."   
"Why… Why did you do all this?" It was completely incomprehensible; Nakago cared for no one.   
The Shogun sighed deeply, the windows to sadness opening slightly more as he once again raised his head. "I have been in a living hell before. I can assure you that the spiritual hell is much, much worse. I was tortured by having to know exactly how each of my victims felt every time I did anything to them, and the feelings were magnified a thousand fold and repeated until the end of time. I have no desire to let anyone suffer again as I and as everyone I knew once did. It perhaps may not sound truthful, but it's nothing less." Nakago once again shrunk back as Adam reclaimed dominance, the red of his shirt standing out all the more sharply after the blue armor, which almost blended into the surroundings. "You've got almost all of them, and everyone is on their guard. It won't be as easy for him to attack any one of you now, but he's persistent enough to try another way at you. Watch carefully. I stay with him now, watching him and doing what I can to confuse his thoughts and memories, but I get precious little accomplished." Completely unexpectedly, he grinned - a weird expression even on Adam's face, as none of them had ever seen him smile. "Being dead is such a pain in the ass.   
"Listen," he said quickly when no response came to that rather startling statement. "I don't have much time. I'll stay with Ashitare and do what I can, but you have to warn everyone to not drop their guards. The only way for this to end is for Ashitare to die, and he won't die easily. Otherwise…"   
"Otherwise… what?"   
Grimly, he shook his head. "You don't want to know." Suddenly his head jerked upwards, the blue sun lights seemed to coalesce about his body, giving him more than the traditional ethereal glow. He watched the… sky… for a long moment, before slowly looking down again. "I have to go. He's moving, I have to follow." The colors of his clothes, his hair, his unimaginably sad eyes seemed to flow like a river out of every section of his body, all heading down his torso and out into the blue through his feet, joining the patterned waves around him.   
Just before he disappeared, he heard one last question. "What do you want me to do?!"   
"Wake up."_   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
_Gotta warn them gotta tell them gotta warn them gotta tell them…_   
Risako's eyes snapped open.   
_I WAS ABOUT TO TRUST NAKAGO!_   
Something just wasn't right with that picture…   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Reijirou spent five seconds standing in the hall after he left Risako's room, not sure why he was doing it but just knowing that his feet didn't want to move him in the direction of the general gathering, where there seemed to be a lot of commotion. He briefly wondered if they needed him to hold Taka or maybe Soi back from attacking Tomo, but then let the idea go (Nuriko and Tasuki and Hotohori and Chichiri and Mitsukake were there, after all) and turned into the doorway that was almost right across the hall from Risako's, closing the door behind him.   
He was nearly sorry he had. It was obviously Ryobe and Hoshiko's room, with the walls painted a cool blue, photographs everywhere, a well-worn spread on the bed, and random pieces of clothing scattered in places. He had mortified himself with this family enough lately without going through the parents' personal things, however unintentionally, and turned to leave.   
However, before he could get out the door, something caught his eye, and he slowly sat on the bed, picking it up. It was a framed picture of the Daishi family, taken on an outing to the park when Risako was incredibly small, possibly smaller than Naora. Hoshiko and Ryobe were obviously only in their early thirties, and it was a candid shot: Hoshiko was kneeling at the top of one of the jungle gym apparatus that had a slide attached to it, and Risako was sitting at the top of the slide, gripping the sides with her tiny fingers, her mother's hands on her back, ready to push her down. Ryobe stood at the bottom, arms extended, ready to catch the small girl. Risako was obviously a bit frightened, but her tongue was sticking out the side of her mouth determinedly, and she was about ready to push off, her parents' smiles encouraging her. It was the same determined look he'd seen on her face several times in the past weeks, except in a younger version on a head with pigtails.   
He groaned and flopped back on the bed, lying across it sideways and rubbing his face with his hands. He'd said earlier that he felt sorted out, that everything was fine, that he knew what it was about, but _nooooooooooo_. True, at that time, he _had_ felt better, but it definitely hadn't lasted. He wasn't sure whether it was his confused little mind making even _more_ trouble for him or a shock effect of Risako going under again or what. He just knew that somehow he felt even more turmoil. At least he didn't feel like lashing out at someone now, but he still wouldn't want to talk about it with anyone. He didn't even think he could last two seconds in polite company without shaking to pieces from jitters caused by whatever was the matter with him.   
He decided to stay right where he was until everything was better - or as long as they let him.   
Which, knowing them, wouldn't be very long.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Tasuki had Chiriko in an enthusiastic _hug_, of all things, shouting happily about how it was so great to see him again and many other things, all with appropriate exclamations, of course. Daisuke, meanwhile, was staring at his mini-clone, as if even after seeing a summoning (his own, at that!) he couldn't quite believe it was _real_ and happening to _him_. He had an analytical mind, less so than Chiriko's own, but more so than Suezo's, and it was driving him crazy. This type of thing went against all the known laws of the universe and everything he'd ever read, except science fiction books! And the "fiction" was a pretty key part of the phrase, wasn't it? Fiction, meaning laws of time and physics were regularly broken and the reader had to have a willing suspension of disbelief. Well, screw it, his disbelief was planted firmly on the ground and wasn't getting suspended _anywhere_ if he had a say in it. This was all way too improbable for him to make any sense of - except it had happened, hadn't it?   
"Are you all right?" a familiar voice asked from above his shoulder. Daisuke immediately turned to find Tetsuya-san standing behind him, apparently watching the reunion instead of him, but with those ever-present sunglasses you never knew. "You look like you've seen a ghost."   
"According to you all, I have, haven't I?" Daisuke shot back with a twist to his voice that made Tetsuya frown a bit. "This is all so… so…"   
"Improbable? Illogical? Unbelievable? Implausible? Inconceivable? Staggering? Dubious? Strange? Just plain wrong?" Another voice over his other shoulder sent him spinning again, to find the tall doctor - what was his name, Sao or something? - next to Tetsuya-san, giving him a look that said all too well that he knew exactly how Daisuke was feeling at that moment. "You're absolutely right. It's all those things and much more. But, being the sane medical professional I am, I can tell you that it's completely true." The tall doctor looked down from his muuuuuch greater height, and to Daisuke's complete surprise, he was suppressing a smile. "Just be glad they didn't have to convince you the way they did me - though I doubt Nuriko would mind performing again."   
"Um… Excuse me, I don't think I heard you right. 'Performing again'? What did he do to you?" Daisuke asked, casting a nervous look at the chipper-looking purple haired seishi.   
"Oh, nothing much. Nearly put me through the ceiling in the hospital, but that was all." This time the doctor was definitely grinning.   
Tetsuya-san shook his head in a hopeless manner. "I may be obsessed with that book, but that's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm _not_ a seishi - I don't nearly get killed to get me to believe something."   
His protégé, however, wasn't looking at him. Rather, he hadn't turned from Murai, making Tetsuya's hidden eyebrow raise a bit. "You…" Daisuke began, sounding a bit awed. "You seem so familiar."   
Murai cast a quick look at Tetsuya, not _exactly_ sure what to do in this situation. It hadn't quite happened this way at any other summonings, but Daisuke seemed to be having a harder time accepting it than anyone before him. Tetsuya shrugged a little, clearly not sure what to do either, and the doctor decided that blunt would probably be his best option - after all, Tasuki couldn't keep Chiriko distracted forever and those two needed to talk. Soon. "When we lived in the other world, we… spent a lot of time with each other. You _seemed_-" he made sure to stress that word, the memories Mitsukake had given him had proved completely the other way "-like a small boy that needed our protection, and I couldn't help watching out for you. It was proved completely opposite, of course… You were braver than any of us."   
Daisuke could only remain staring at him, the disbelief gone from his expression and a tremulous sort of hope on his face. "I don't have a father…" he murmured, as though he wasn't even aware he was saying it. If he was, he certainly would have wondered exactly what the hell had prompted him to tell that rather private and painful fact to a complete freakin' stranger. But either his disbelief was finally getting suspended, or Murai - with Mitsukake's help - was finally getting through to him.   
A pair of golden eyes watched the trio from across the room. Chomei had come up, been introduced to everyone, and nearly thought himself to be insane. He thought he recognized Taka from seeing him around the university, but why would a professor be at this party Risako's parents seemed to be giving? Suezo was a bit more logical to explain, as once again he'd seen the long-haired boy around the building, but he didn't seem the type that Risako would hang out with, and again what was he doing at her parents' party? And even more baffling, what were two fourteen-year-olds doing there? The only people old enough to be their parents were _Risako's_ parents. It was possible they could have been some other relation to someone in the room, but they looked nothing like anyone else. No one else seemed that odd or out of place to him, though - except for Gesshin, who he'd explained away with the guess that he was Reijirou's friend. But he couldn't get rid of the feeling that all these people were watching him very closely, whether he knew them or not. And they'd been remarkably tight-lipped; the only conversation he'd heard was stuff more boring than his Thursday management class. And none of it was directed his way. It was… odd, to say the extreme least.   
Then had come those two from the bookstore - another round of introductions for the shorter, younger one, who had seemed to be thrust into much the same position he had been. Chomei and Daisuke had felt a brief bond of togetherness as their eyes connected through the crowd, confusion evident in both slightly wide pairs… But for some reason the two "unknowns" weren't allowed to band together, being kept apart by just about everyone for some reason neither one of them could figure out. There seemed to be some sort of mild confusion for quite a few minutes, which Chomei gathered was from Reijirou and Risako's prolonged absence (but hadn't they gone to the store?). And then…   
It was… It was just… It was impossible. That was all there was to it. He was having some sort of dream. That would explain why the number of people in the room almost doubled all of a sudden. He'd just sat calmly in his chair, waiting for the strange dream to run itself down so he could wake up while Daisuke tried to run from everyone and was stopped by a rather tall ghost-looking thing with flaming red hair - who looked incredibly like Gesshin, as a matter of fact.   
And then… Chiriko's summoning… He had to admit that it all felt much too _real_ for it to be a dream or a hoax. A wisp of that smoke stuff had floated over to him and landed on his hand - and gave him such a shock that he had severe trouble stuffing his hand in his mouth, both to make it feel better and to stop his yelp of pain. Dreams wouldn't hurt like that. They always stopped right before you got to the pain part. So this couldn't be a dream…   
But did he want it to be real? This Tomo person… He didn't sound too nice. And while he could look at Soi and Suboshi and wonder how they'd ever been violent antagonists who killed the _other_ people standing in front of him, he couldn't be anywhere near sure that the same thing would happen with Tomo. Tomo, this guy who was supposedly _him_, and vice versa. To tell the truth, he sounded… kind of like a freak. The make up Yui-san described, the clothing Soi said he wore - and he'd noticed that finding nice things to say about him seemed to be incredibly hard for all associated with Seiryu present, which could mean one of two things. He could either have been very reserved and closed, not allowing anyone to get near him… or he could have been as evil as everyone was saying this Ashitare guy was. All in all not the best set of possibilities - a misanthrope or a freaky evil dude. And he didn't really want to find out which was the right answer. Chomei glanced around, making sure that everyone was occupied with something or other, and quietly slipped out of the main room and down the hall to the rest of the apartment.   
He'd been in the Daishi apartment before, several times actually. After all, Risako was a long-standing good friend of his and her parents didn't have any problems with him either. When they went somewhere together, they normally met at her place first. So he knew precisely where he was going when he set his hand on the metal handle of the door across from Risako's and turned it, hoping for a minute alone to sort this barrage of information out.   
The closed door should have been a sign - after all, he'd never yet see Hoshiko or Ryobe shut it entirely - but Chomei was shocked to discover someone else in there. Reijirou was sprawled sideways over the bed on his back, his head falling over to the left, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. His legs below the knees flopped over the edge of the bed and hung there, his arms were askew on either side of his body, and one hand was clutching a familiar picture of the Daishi family that he didn't bother to glance too closely at. Chomei could only stand in the middle of the floor and stare. Reijirou looked so… so… innocent and trusting when he was asleep, more fragile than he would have thought, almost like a little kid. There was just _something_ about this boy that grabbed him and wouldn't let him go, some reason why Reijirou's avoidance hurt him more than he'd been hurt by anyone before. If this seishi business was the truth, that feeling of camaraderie might be a possible reason - but somehow, Chomei didn't think that was why. It was something about Reijirou himself - he didn't even get that feeling from Nuriko. So… he had to give him up.   
It wouldn't do either of them any favors for Chomei to keep chasing him, and would only cause pain, suffering, and the destruction of a possible friendship before it really had the chance to get going. At that point, Chomei needed friends more than romance, what with fighting his father and all, and here was a person he just didn't want to lose. So it was for the best. He'd let Risako have him without a fight, and offer his hand again, in friendship this time, and hope Reijirou accepted him.   
But even with all the logical thinking, he couldn't just accept defeat that easily. He sat extremely carefully on the corner of the bed to avoid alerting Reijirou to his presence, and just stared down at the younger man. Some of his friends might have called Reijirou too girly-looking, but to Chomei, he wasn't feminine at all. Yes, he was beautiful, but it was the type of beauty that didn't need a gender, much more universal than "pretty" or "handsome." Chomei allowed himself a few moments to stare, fixing that face in his mind, as one hand absently and very lightly stroked Reijirou's shaggy hair. Then, completely on impulse, he bent down and gave him a light kiss.   
He didn't know what made him do that, but it was enough. "Thank you," he whispered so softly it was barely a breath of sound. He carefully rose and, with one last glance back at the sleeping boy, he exited the room.   
Once outside, Chomei had to take a deep breath, hold it, then let it out in a deep sigh to try to feel normal again. He was prepping himself to head back to the chaotic main room when he thought he detected a noise under the buzz of commotion - a shuddering heave for breath. And it sounded like it was coming from Risako's room, which was right in front of him. He was comfortable enough with this family to have no worries about what he did in their home, so he simply pushed the door open a few inches and poked his head in. "Risako? Are you in here?" After all, thinking logically, if Reijirou was back then so was Risako.   
"Y… Yes," came her voice, more than slightly abnormal. Chomei frowned; she sounded like she'd run a marathon and then been frightened out of her wits. "You can come in if you want…"   
"Are you all right?" he asked as he stepped through the door. Risako was seated sideways on her bed, leaning against the wall, bits of hair falling over her face (which looked slightly pale), and breathing a bit harder than usual. "You don't look good."   
She made a face as he approached the bed and sat down next to her, leaning against the wall himself. "Is it that apparent?"   
"Definitely."   
"Thanks for the honesty," she said somewhat ironically. "It's nothing, I just had- one weird dream."   
"Feel like talking about it?" he queried, tilting his head slightly to look at her.   
She replied with a quick shake of her head. "Not yet. But what are you doing back here? Shouldn't you be getting acquainted with Tomo?"   
Chomei winced slightly; he should've known she'd ask. "Well, they haven't gotten around to me yet… But I came back here to tell you something. And ask something, also," he remembered to add. Risako just gave him an inquisitive look, wordlessly urging him to go on. His mouth tightened a little at the corner as he thought of "what could have been" if he took another path, but he knew he was doing the right thing. "I'm giving Reijirou up."   
Needless to say, that took her aback. She'd clearly seen the look of pain and longing in Chomei's eyes when she and Reijirou had run into him in the parking lot, and he was a friend. She didn't like her friends feeling that way. In many other cases, she'd be helping Chomei try and get the guy - especially since he seemed to be more serious about this one than any she'd seen before. But for some reason she was helping Reijirou keep away from him, and hurting her friend indirectly in the process… Was it because she was spending more time with him than Chomei at this point? "You're giving him up? Why? Normally you're so determined."   
"But I don't want to chase him away. I just…" He sighed, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. "It's really hard to explain. I don't know if I can do it outside my head. I guess… I just wanna keep him around in any way possible, and that can't happen if he's scared of me - which, judging by his reaction last night, he is."   
"Oh. So you figured it out?"   
"Your little ruse? Yeah. It wasn't that hard - once I sat down and thought it over for a long time. And that kind of brings me to my question…" Chomei turned to look at her, completely serious. "Why don't you take him?"   
"ME?!" Risako squawked, bolting upright and staring at him as if he were completely insane. "ME?!"   
"Why not you? Look, it's obvious that you care about him-"   
"WHAT?! Last night was just to get you off his back!"   
"It's _obvious_, all right? Just take it from me." Chomei gave her sort of a half-grin. "After all, when it comes to things like this, I think like a girl, remember? Believe me, it's obvious. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to do such a convincing job at the party."   
"But I _don't_ care about him, not like that-"   
"Didn't enjoy kissing him? Didn't enjoy feeling those soft, warm lips against your own, that adorably messy hair caressing your skin-"   
"HENTAI!" CRASH. "_Howdidyouknowallthat?!_"   
"Owwwwwwwwwww…" Chomei groaned from the floor. He carefully raised an arm to rub his head, checking it for lumps. "Well… your father's training hasn't gone to waste, I see."   
"Just answer my question!!!"   
Fortunately for Chomei, a sleep-tousled head with bleary eyes poked itself in the room, trying to focus on the blurry figures. "Whaz goin'n?" Reijirou mumbled. As his eyes focused a bit more, he could see Chomei on his back on the floor, arms held up in a defensive position, and Risako actually standing on the bed, towering six feet over him, a look of complete almighty wrath on her face and what looked like a volume of the encyclopedia held in her hands over her head, ready to smash it down on Chomei's head. _Okay, THIS is weird…_ "Um, Ris'ko, 're ya gonna kill'm?" His voice was taking a bit longer to work than his eyes, but he was pretty sure he got his meaning across.   
"I just might…" she said through _extremely_ clenched teeth.   
"You know, I think-they-might-be-ready-for-me-now," Chomei babbled in a rush, then quickly twisted to his feet and dashed out the door, ignoring Reijirou completely in his attempt to get away from Homicidal Risako.   
"Ah… O…kay." Reijirou, not surprisingly, was completely baffled. "What was that all about?"   
"Nothing," Risako replied, dropping the heavy book (which turned out to be something from her Art class) back next to her bed and climbing down, taking a deep breath to calm down and stop herself from strangling Chomei in the next five minutes. Either he had a _really_ good imagination or he'd- GAH! "Just something he said."   
Reijirou got the definite impression that he didn't want to know anything more. "Well, if they're going to call Tomo-" he was interrupted by a yawn. "Sorry. I better get out there in case they need to hold someone back."   
"All right, I'll go with you. Wait, come here, you look a mess." Risako grabbed his arm and pulled him into her room, then began smoothing down his messier-than-normal hair in a very mother-like way. Or at least, that's what he thought. Risako couldn't help think about Chomei's words and concentrate on the feel of Reijirou's bits of hair running under her fingers, but she made herself steadfastly refuse to show it as long as she was looking at him. Even if Chomei was right - and she wasn't admitting he was - she couldn't give it away this early in the game. _Still, his hair is so great, thick and unruly and STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOUNG LADY!_   
"Risako? What is it?" asked the calm one of the pair.   
Risako bit her tongue to stop her from saying anything or making stupid faces. "Nothing," she lied through her teeth. "C'mon, let's go."   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
In some ways, it was like any other summoning.   
In others it was a disaster.   
Daisuke had finally calmed down sufficiently to talk to speak semi-sanely with Chiriko, listening and nodding gravely at all the right places, understanding most of what he took in - and hoping to whatever god there was that the rest of it would become clear once he read the Shi Jin. Hey, if he was suddenly seeing Murai as some sort of long-lost father figure, and Gesshin, as weird as it sounded because he was actually _older_ than the fire-headed working teen, as a strange older brother - well, why not believe the mini-him? Chiriko was, undoubtedly, the most logical person he'd ever met, and definitely the most mature thirteen-year-old. A bit too serious perhaps, but Daisuke knew well that he could have that fault, too, at times - maybe he'd gotten more from this tiny scholar than he'd originally been told. But behind those wide green eyes, he thought he saw a spark of laughter, fun, and mischief - a normal thirteen-year-old boy inside just waiting to be let out at the proper time.   
"All right everyone, let's get going!" Daisuke turned to once again look at the assembly as Morin's voice rang over people's heads. She was standing pretty close to the hallway, so she was in a perfect position to collar Chomei (literally) when he sped down from Risako's room like the hounds of hell were at his feet. Chiriko shook his head as Chomei's feet shot forward from under him, head being jerked back by the hand on his collar. Needless to say, he couldn't keep his balance and fell flat on his back, dazedly wondering if everyone here wanted to kill him.   
"Eh-heh… oops," Morin grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that, Chomei-kun." She took his hand and pulled him to his feet, then passed him off to Yui, who grabbed his shoulder to stop him falling over. His eyes were still a bit unfocused as she led him to the chair that had been set in the middle of the room and lightly pushed him into it - once he was seated, he seemed to get control of all his systems again. He wordlessly held out his arms for the book, face turning grave and serious.   
Daisuke could see something else as well. Chomei was definitely experiencing apprehension and fear. It was apparent in the way his eyes widened a tiny bit, how his arms grew stiff as Yui slid the book into them, the slight pallor that had come to his features. Next to him, Chiriko had grown suspiciously silent, and when Daisuke looked down to ask what was the matter, words fell short of his mouth. Chiriko was wearing the exact same look, except without the tinge of resigned patience that topped off Chomei's pile of emotions. A quick glance around showed Miaka, Yui, Nuriko, Soi, Amiboshi, Suboshi, and even to some extent Mitsukake sporting the same expressions, while Tasuki was putting forth quite a valiant effort to control his anger, his fingers flexing convulsively on the handle of the tessen. Taka and Chichiri's faces were impassive masks, but he could tell that both of them were also doing some serious anger management at the moment. Hotohori seemed to be the only ghost without an easily determined reaction - hardly surprising, given how he'd been trained to appear neutral under stress for eighteen years. Every "modern" person in the room was watching Yui anxiously as she stepped back from Chomei, giving the directions that most gathered there knew by heart - think about the seishi, don't lose focus, etcetera etcetera. Chomei nodded all the way through, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Yui began to chant.   
Daisuke didn't have to be there anymore. His part, and the other Suzakus' parts, was over, and they were all free to return home and pursue their normal lives - if you could call having a ghost at your shoulder "normal". However, they stayed, mostly out of a sense of morbid curiosity as to how all these seishis' reactions would influence the summoning and its results. Daisuke, however, was struck by a different reason to stay - to support Chomei, who appeared more isolated sitting in the crowd of people than Daisuke had felt when everyone was giving him a wide berth. After all, the college student hadn't asked for this any more than he had. He glanced down at Chiriko, gauging if it was all right for him to do this, then quietly began making his way through the throng, trying to get closer to the chair. He was small, but he was better than nothing.   
He didn't quite make it, though. Before Daisuke could politely nudge his way past everyone without disturbing them or breaking anyone's concentration, the book was smoking, the dark shape was growing, Yui's voice was reaching a crescendo, and then, finally, the smoke exploded away from a decidedly odd figure. He had plenty of time to focus on it since everyone was holding their breath as the smoke rolled in on itself and disappeared, waiting for this one's first action much more tensely than any before. The first thing that struck the eyes was the vivid orange-red color of his… robes, or whatever they were; he'd naively assumed that their world wouldn't have such startling clothes colors for commoners, since those dyes were incredibly expensive. Then he remembered that Tomo had been a performer, and that cleared up that mystery. But still, the color was rich, as were the yellow and black accents. The long hair, crown, and trailing streamers of feathers all came in one fell swoop, making his eyes widen in astonishment as to how _out there_ this person really was. His hair had to be as long as Kadiri's, and the feathers were just as long and even rose a bit in the air from the crown before they fell down his back! But what ultimately fixed his attention was Tomo's face. It was just as Yui and Kadiri had said - white make up was layered so thickly over his skin that had Tomo had any color in his cheeks it still would have been hidden. His eyes - slightly narrower and more cunning than Chomei's, he noticed - along with his nose and chin had been traced and accented by indigo and black, with a huge gold-rimmed red spot in the middle of his forehead.   
No doubt about it, this guy was _weird_-looking.   
No one spoke as the surprisingly plain black boots settled to the floor and Tomo opened his eyes, glancing at the assembly before him. He assessed them all coolly, through impersonal eyes, his gaze leaving no one in the strange throng untouched. The feeling in the air wasn't tense; it was apprehensive. All the seishi and the mikos were staring at him like he was a ticking time bomb that might not have been defused. Needless to say, that attitude was not conducive to a friendly atmosphere.   
_And I bet it'll be even worse when we find that Mi-whatever guy,_ Daisuke thought ironically, and not without a trace of justifiable anger. _Or maybe not. I know everyone has redeeming qualities, but did either of them show any in their interactions with the others? I guess only Soi knows… And man, she looks_ pissed.   
Yup, the other longhaired Seiryu seishi did indeed look more than mildly ticked off, but she was holding back from exploding - barely. Her fists were clenched by her sides, bent in towards her body and shaking slightly from her effort to restrain herself. It seemed that she could not let go of her rivalry with the other seishi, even with Nakago dead. In fact, it might even have strengthened because of that - both of them would need someone to take out their frustrations on.   
Tomo, however, paid absolutely no attention to her. Instead, when his eyes stopped roving, they landed squarely on Chomei, giving the modern, _very_ different him a direct, unreadable look. Chomei felt himself growing uncomfortable under that stare, as if Tomo's eyes could see straight through his skin and to the very core of his sole - and fell visibly limp when Tomo lowered his head and proceeded - all visible jaws dropped as far as they could go - to _take off his crown and feathers_. The long ponytail slid slowly through the crown, the slipping of the hairs on metal very evident in the dead silence, and when he was through he placed the crown on the floor as his ponytail flopped forward over his shoulder. He then raised one hand, head still tilted down, to his face, touching it delicately… And raised his head to Chomei, and his eyes were now readable. They were… dim, shadowed, with a mist of emotion. It almost seemed like… remorse.   
Chomei's eyes widened in surprise at the complete opposite of what he'd expected, but before he could mention it or Tomo could say a word on his own an animal-like yell of rage rent the silence, issuing from a body lit with startling red light emanating from its forehead. Everyone spun to watch in that direction, even Tomo, most stepping back and unconsciously opening a path between the men. Taka stood at the end, eyes ablaze and fists held up to deliver a fatal first punch. Daisuke didn't even have time to process the information - _itmakessensetamahomestheonethatsufferedthemostfromhimnearlybeingkillednearlylosingmiaka_ - his brain was belatedly sending him before Taka - no, _Tamahome_ - rushed down the aisle that had opened with far too much speed to literally kill Tomo.   
"TAKA!" Something slammed into the floor at speeds comparable to Taka's not three feet from Tomo, flattening the man in an instant and stopping the homicide in progress (that wouldn't have worked anyway, seeing as how Tomo was not really alive to begin with). After a second in which everyone held their breaths, Reijirou pushed himself up with his arms, his breathing a little belabored but otherwise not bad. "Damnit you dumb imbecile… You can't do that," he muttered, pushing himself off his teacher to kneel next to him on the floor. Risako and Miaka tentatively approached the duo from either side, Miaka pressing a hand to her husband's forehead and glancing at Reijirou a bit worriedly. He just shook his head. "He'll be fine. We just used a little more force than we meant to."   
_We?_ Chomei thought a bit dazedly. _Who's we?_ Then he noticed that Reijirou was moving just slightly differently, his voice sounding just the slightest touch lighter than it normally did - and when he caught a glimpse of the younger boy's eyes, he saw that the brown had started to overwhelm the natural green of the hazel color they usually were. He thought he understood; someone had mentioned the seishi being able to enter your body and bestow their powers on you, and he suspected he was seeing some of the side effects. Although how he could tell the slight differences were there was _not_ something he wished to dwell on right at this particular moment.   
Tomo looked for a long moment at Taka, whose eyes were fluttering open at last, then up again, his eyes immediately coming to rest on Soi. And regardless of what she saw there, her fist clenched tighter. "Soi," he began, inclining his head to her.   
"Tomo," she replied through clenched teeth.   
His gaze remained on her for another few seconds, almost seeming hurt, before traveling to Amiboshi and greeting him in a similar fashion, but the young seishi seemed to shrink back as he returned the greeting. His brother was less overtly hostile than Soi, but he was still wary and replied with caution.   
Among his contemporaries, there was not one openly friendly face in the room, most of them showing a mix of apprehension and anger or worry. Even among the modern people there was no warm smile, but mostly wary looks of "what's going to happen next." He could see Tasuki's lip curled up in a snarl, leaving one fang exposed, Chiriko's small form trying to duck behind his modern (significantly taller) counterpart, the glint in Reijirou's eyes that boded very ill for him. Even Yui, his own miko, was hesitant to approach him and had only started doing so.   
It was very clear what their view of him was, and after his "lessons" in the afterlife, the ones that had drug Soi and Suboshi and Nakago through their wringers already, he couldn't really say he blamed them. True, he'd had a really shitty beginning in life, but he finally understood that you couldn't just funnel the repressed anger into the quickest release, striking back at people in the way you yourself were struck at. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to believe that he could have come out of the same ordeals the other Seiryu had faced - and the rest looked to trust the other Seiryu - changed. He looked down again, trying to once again see the makeup he desperately wanted to remove, and took a deep breath.   
"I'm sorry," he said - and vanished.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Well, at least one person asked for it, so I'm giving you two, since it might help you understand these guys better. Profiles, but _brief_ profiles.   


R E I J I R O U

  
Reijirou, as well as his two siblings (older sister Chiaki, younger brother Hajime), was born on the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido. His father worked in advertising and was transfered to Tokyo when Reijirou was ten, and the entire family went. He did most of the usual things in school (some sports, hanging out with friends, keeping up with his grades pretty decently), but always seemed a bit different than the other guys - almost more understanding of the "fairer sex." He had/has several friends of both sexes, all of whom feel comfortable talking to him about just about anything, and as a result he's become somewhat of the local expert in knowing what the opposite sex is feeling and being able to explain it to whoever's asking. Perversely, he's stayed well away from the romance game and gossip. Yes, he's been on dates, but never really serious ones - and usually only at others' prodding. He's definitely strong, but definitely doesn't look it as he's more small-boned than anything. He hates being mistaken for a girl (because when he is, guys usually try and hit on him in the most pathetically perverted way possible) but unfortunately it happens more than he'd like. College freshmen with no definite major or plans for the future, at the moment at least, with a biiiiiit of a temper.   


K A D I R I

  
Kadiri is a minor self-success story. She was born to a deadbeat mother who basically didn't take care of her at all, never worked, and could barely take care of herself. She never knew her father, and decided at a young age that she didn't _want_ to know him, and it's never bothered her since - that she shows, anyway. Fortunately when she was around four or five her mother's unmarried sister petitioned for custody of her niece and was granted it. She didn't make much money, but she was a much better caretaker than her deadbeat sister and Kadiri could have more of a normal life with her. She went to school and to college, working her way through to pay the bills so as not to place the strain on her aunt, and became a manager at the store Reijirou works at. She is a very outgoing, confident person - once you get to know her. Her early life prevents her from opening up to people immediately and being the type of person she calls a "social butterfly" - always going out, tons of friends, knows everybody and is known by everybody. She likes spending time alone, but is also somewhat lonely. She has very few illusions about romance and has never really indulged in one - until now, because her expectations were too high (she's giving Keisuke a try now, and so far it seems to be going all right). She has tact, but it's always a guessing game as to when and if she'll choose to use it. She has plans to buy out the music store when she gets enough money. She also has a strange fascination with American films from pre-1970.   
If you guys wanna know about any character, just ask! ^_^ I'll do my best to explain.   
Now - GO READ KRYSSA'S STUFF! NOW! 


	27. Chapter 27

  
DISCLAIMER: I just managed to get back online and I just spent nearly $300 on textbooks. You think I own FY? Hell no.   
AUTHOR'S NOTES: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! ~ducks rush of oncoming Sharp'n Pointy Objects being weilded by readers~ I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY! I honestly didn't mean for it to take this long, I honestly honestly didn't! I've been trying to write, but it became so incredibly hard this past year - I have no idea what happened, and I didn't want it to, I would've avoided it if I could! I didn't want to leave you hanging (well, not more than I usually do), and I dearly wish it could have been avoided.   
I've been very busy, yes, but that's no excuse. Well, it is sorta, but I don't wanna use it as one. The plain truth of the matter is that my creativity got eaten away, and it took a very, very long time - and meetings with certain people! ^_^ - to bring it back. It was writer's block in an extreme form, and while I _wanted_ to write it getting the words out was excruciatingly hard. But, in the end - and with no small amount of help from Kris (thank you so so so much!) - it happened. At-freakin'-last. So, don't kill me - kill my writer's block! You'd be doing everybody a favor then!   
Since it's been so long I was debating not doing review replies since I was doubtful many people have even a vague clue of what they wrote _months_ ago, but I figure it's the least I can do to make up for the delay. So, with another apology (gomen nasai!), here's more of my ramblings in response to your ramblings.   
Skittles! We have similar computer problems - they had to shut down my school's network for days to fix it 'cause it got infected with worms! I actually survived pretty well and developed a social life, but at the same time it was annoying to not be able to check e-mail.   
Quickening, so they need help and Chomei needs to get on their case, huh? ^_~ I'll keep that in mind... and let them know you said that if they ask! And I actually feel sorry for Tomo, too - 'course, I feel sorry for just about all of 'em, but still... he had such a rotten childhood! Not saying that excuses his actions, but it makes them more understandable.   
TA Maxwell, wow... it took you that long? O.o I didn't know my stuff was so... involved. Well, I guess I did, but still... ~whistles~ Guess it doesn't really sink in, being the writer and all. But I'm glad you like it!   
Kris... not even gonna try. Fill in the blank (__________________________) with just about everything.   
Boko - Tomo, shy? O.o Okay, if ya think so. And you have an inkling? Oooh, you may have figured it out! But yes, theories shall have to wait to be proven, but... I don't think it'll be long now that certain things have started. You'll see what I mean.   
Chibigreen, glad you enjoyed that scene! I did too, immensely ^_________^ Just too much fun. And it is funny (ironic) how much more sympathetic Tomo comes across in fanfictions - probably because you can show more than one side to everything. It's not all black-and-white, like the second season of FY seemed to be.   
Flying heart, why is it not fair that Chomei kissed Reijie? Would you like to kiss him yourself? Go right ahead if you want, just be preapred for him to freeze! ^_________^ And possibly go hide behind Kris, but that's another story.   
Draconsis - yup, revenge list! Add to it if you want, I wanna post a list like that on my site some day. Just keep accepting suggestions until we reach 1,001. Just 'cause it'd be fun. And someone thinks Chomei is cute? Awww! ^__^   
J. Liha, 'course he's gonna come back. Dun worry!   
Elwing Silme, some really don't like it, some... eh, it'll become apparent. And ooh, another person saying they need to get things straightened out... Hmm, I wonder if y'all're trying to tell me something... ^_~   
Meirelle Emeraldeyes, you're right, I wasn't when I first started it. And then after that I had college friends who helped me get things straight. But also Japanese college is different from American college - I'm just not sure how. I'll find out some day though! And don't go crazy! I hope all those things got finished, and that you didn't have problem after that... Y'know, I need to go do my own reading...   
Evil Hunter, you're really impressing me these past few chapters. I think you spend more time speculating about this story than _I_ do - and I didn't think that was possible! I love that you do it though, I love seeing what other people think. Keep going!   
Space Cat, well, this isn't exactly soon... but I already ranted about that above. And actually, I've heard quite a few theories of Miboshi-as-a-woman-originally, but none quite like yours... someone that wanted to hold on to the beauty of youth for all eternity is _quite_ intriguing to think about! Especially since "he" could summon all those hideous beasts... Symbolism and irony and metaphors can run rampant. Aie, my Lit-trained brain is kicking in majorly...   
Mercury Angel, you're back! ~hugs~ Sorry it took so long, and I don't really answer your questions, but I'm glad to see you again!   
Eikou - I am going to be very, very blunt. I have seen Eikouden. In fact, I possess two copies - the official American and a badly-translated disc from China which is just funny to watch because of the badness. In Eikouden, there is no specification as to whether Miaka has a boy or a girl, but Hikari is a girl's name, and Hikaru is the male version of it. Also, in volume 18 of the manga and episode 6 of the second OVA, where it shows the happy couple standing with a kid, I personally can't tell whether the kid is a boy or a girl, so I guessed. I did put up a note once Eikouden came out that said "written with no knowledge of OVA 3 (Eikouden)", and I also started writing this story a year before Eikouden came. Also, I really don't like Eikouden. Haven't since I first saw it. So I wasn't about to go back and rewrite twenty or so chapters to fit it, and I wouldn't have even if I liked it. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but if you ignore my warnings and my author's notes, I am going to "forcefully yet diplomatically" remind you. And yes, I have read Purple Mouse's stories - I've been reading them since they first came out, as we originally beta-read each other's stuff.   
Well... ahem. I love you all! Thanks for sticking around! ~hugs to all, heads off to do EES reading~   
  


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It took everyone a while to realize that, yes, Tomo was gone. Not just invisible, _gone_. No one, be they seishi or miko, could sense a trace of him in the apartment, if you discounted Chomei as a trace. In fact, Chomei was more baffled than the others; as weird as it sounded, while Tomo stood before him he could almost feel a link of some sort being forged between the two of them. Maybe it was because he was the reincarnation of Tomo, maybe there was some other reason, but when Tomo disappeared all sense of the link shattered as if it had never been.   
Tasuki let out a annoyed roar to break the silence, making more than one person jump. "Damnit all ta fuckin' hell, why'd ya 'ave t' go an' do that, Obake-chan?! Migh' as well just start callin' ya OBAKA-chan if ya keep actin' like that!"   
"Shut it, Tasuki," Taka mumbled from the floor – he still had most of his face implanted in the carpet. "How would _you_ react if you saw the thing that-"   
"Don' even start it, Tama, jus' don' even start it," Tasuki warned, pointing the tessen at the teacher for emphasis as he pushed himself up to his knees. "Th' question _now_ is 'Who's gonna go af'er 'im an' get 'im back here?' I don' think ye're gonna volunteer."   
Silence once again filled the room as the others contemplated Tasuki's very relevant question. Daisuke immediately counted himself out of the running, based on two very important facts. He glanced around, wondering if anyone else had thought of the slight complications involved yet and if it was all right for him to speak up – but then he caught Gesshin's eye and knew he had to say something. The redhead was younger but had a few inches and quite a few pounds on him, and was giving Daisuke a look that plainly said 'speak up now or I swear to God I'll _make_ you say it.' Daisuke allowed himself to puzzle for one second exactly _how_ Gesshin knew he'd think of something before he actually began to talk.   
"I think it would have to be a… a seishi." The word still sounded strange to him, almost as strange as everyone looking at him suddenly. "We, um, non-seishi don't know where he's gone and seishi would be more likely to know how to follow… what was it? Ki? and be able to trace him that way. Besides, he's most likely somewhere public right now, and if anyone… real were to be spotted talking to what appears to be thin air, I suspect the police would be called before much headway could be made."   
"You're right about following ki, but I don't suspect we'll have any problems finding him," Amiboshi spoke up suddenly from next to the window. His tone, in contrast to earlier, carried a hint of amusement.   
"What makes you say that?" Hotohori frowned.   
"He's standing right out there next to the street, looking more than slightly lost."   
There was a general rush to the two windows in the Daishi living room, and within seconds they were filled with a multitude of faces all peering downwards with various degrees of interest. Sure enough, visible only to their eyes, a very conspicuous orange-clad figure was turning back and forth slowly, almost in shock, staring at everything around him. Just as Chomei was about to ask why Tomo seemed so awestruck, since he'd sort of been in the modern world before, a woman with a large paper shopping bag walked right through him – making the parts of his body she touched go misty and fragment in the light, before reforming like smoke. He turned the same stunned look on the woman, and Chomei winced; being walked through definitely couldn't be comfortable and could most definitely be disconcerting.   
A few people down from him, Soi shook her head with a half-groaning sigh. "I guess I better go talk to him."   
"No, Soi. I will." Again – surprisingly – the voice was Amiboshi's. "He's not going to believe you easily – I think I might have a better chance of getting through to him." His blue eyes momentarily turned sad and he mumbled something under his breath, before looking up at his twin. "You stay here too – somehow I doubt he's going to take all this nicely coming from…" He didn't have to finish up with "the one who killed him."   
"Damnit Aniki I can take care of myself and Tomo can take care of himself." Suboshi was, to put it mildly, slightly ticked off at the implication that he'd chase Tomo off even _more_. "Let him decide for himself, 'cause there's no way in hell you're going without me."   
"Who knew siblings could be so loving?" Hokusai muttered, before pitching his voice louder. "Well _someone_ go and talk to him, before he takes off _again_ and we lose the one chance we seem to have!"   
Suboshi turned a definite "duh" look on Hokusai before Amiboshi vanished. Suboshi gave a cry of indignation and disappeared fast on his brother's heels. The spectators at the window were rewarded with seeing them pop out of nowhere on the sidewalk next to Tomo within a second.   
Katai and Shirai looked at each other, a bit disturbed. "Are they really us?" Shirai asked, eyes a bit wider than usual.   
"I think so, Rai," his brother responded, wearing a matching expression.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
Contrary to the violent twin's belief, it seemed that Tomo really _wasn't_ all that prepared to believe him. Suboshi was banished from the persuasion meeting within the first few minutes by a brother who was fairly obviously starting to get ticked off and reappeared in the Daishi apartment with an audible, growling huff. Giving the gathering a glare for good measure (and not noticing more than one person rolling their eyes), he stalked into the kitchen and stayed there. For a moment Shirai started to go after him, then decided he was more curious in the outcome of the talk proceeding on the sidewalk and remained plastered to the window.   
To make things a bit easier in the crowding department, most of the seishi combined with their modern counterparts, but even with that extra step there were still more than fifteen bodies straining for a glimpse. It was impossible to hear, of course, but all could see Amiboshi's serious, sincere, and in-control expression as he conversed with the makeup-ed seishi, who appeared equally serious but almost... disheartened. Neither seemed on the verge of blows or running away, but it took longer for Amiboshi to put his diplomatic skills to use than many had estimated. Maybe Tomo had more questions than anyone previously or something of a similar nature; whatever the reason, almost a full ten minutes later the two finally disappeared and reappeared in the living room.   
No one said much of anything for the first few moments, as Tomo and Amiboshi exchanged a look that seemed to convey more than one private communication, Amiboshi's both patient and exasperated and Tomo's almost browbeaten – a surprising look for a seishi normally so self-possessed, but no one could deny the existence. Something about him had changed from when he was alive. If they needed more proof that the afterlife could be educational, it was right in front of them.   
Chomei hadn't moved from the chair. When everyone else was rushing to the windows, he was slowly collapsing against the back, overwhelmed by the sensations that were speeding through his brain. That sense of a link, of the number of layers this person - ghost, whatever - had, wondering if he himself could be so complex… It was all too much to take in. His sense of time abandoned him as he sat there, his mind shut off and thoughts halted, trying to come to terms with all of this in the only way he knew how: not doing anything at all. The occasional comment intruded on his psyche, but never clearly enough to rouse him – until a small hand laid itself on his shoulder. Blinking, Chomei looked up to find Daisuke on his right, a look on the younger boy's face that seemed to hold nothing but understanding. He was still feeling it too, then: the sheer impossibility of everything that had happened that day and everything that was yet to come. But before any mention of any such understanding could be made, Daisuke nodded to the room before them. Chomei looked, and was more than a bit startled to see Tomo and Amiboshi on the blank expanse of carpet before him, Shirai running into the kitchen looking determined, and every single other person and ghost in the room watching the bizarre little triangle before them with an unwavering intensity. Amiboshi, too, turned his eyes on Tomo and Chomei, joining the rest in their staring. Tomo seemed able to take the high level of inspection without flinching, but Chomei was trying to sink into the seat once again. _Of course he'd take it better than I would; he's a performer,_ his mind slowly babbled as he tried to concentrate on something beside those reams of eyes. _I'm just nothing little me_.   
Someone apparently had other ideas about what Chomei should be doing. Until then Daisuke's hand had remained on his shoulder, a solid link to reality, but now it moved so it was gripping under his elbow, and the smaller boy exerted enough pressure to make Chomei stumble to his feet. One wild glance back at Daisuke – did he really think this was helping? – and Chomei was given a firm push in Tomo's direction. His feet just barely missed the feathered crown that was still sitting a few feet from the chair, and once again the two were face-to-face. No one spoke.   
As two pairs of golden eyes assessed each other again (_Practically the only similar thing between us,_ Chomei thought), the modern one could feel a distinct sense of _building_ between them – whether it was that link from before, he didn't know, but something was starting to connect the two, growing thicker and more solid with each passing moment. He briefly wondered whether Tomo was feeling it as well before the seishi opened his mouth.   
"I don't expect any of you to believe me." Even though his words were for all, his eyes remained locked on Chomei's. It was as if Tomo thought convincing the modern him was worth more than convincing the other thirty or so of them. "But you are going to listen." The browbeaten look from earlier was gone, and Chomei could just make out Amiboshi nodding in the corner of his eye. "You are going to give me the benefit of the doubt, as I see you've already done for Soi and Suboshi." He paused, waiting for a reaction - and received none. "While I was alive, I did evil things. Sometimes the people deserved it. Sometimes they didn't. But that doesn't matter any more. All that matters now is stopping Ashitare and not letting anyone else die. I'm not here to torture anyone. All I want to do is end it, with him as the loser."   
"Why _should_ we believe you?" Soi spat out, as if the words left a foul taste in her mouth. "You certainly haven't given us any reason to."   
Tomo's eyes, at last, broke from Chomei's, moving in Amiboshi's direction instead. "I said this would happen," he said simply.   
"You did," Amiboshi sighed. He shook his head, distinctly frustrated, as Katai began edging his way through the crowd, determined to lend the seishi some help. "Soi," he began again, "you can't do this now. We need everyone to work together, to listen to each other-"   
"Like hell I can't!" Her exclamation made Katai stop in his tracks and silenced Amiboshi's voice. Shirai poked his head out of the kitchen, swore, and ducked back in. The female seishi's eyes were narrowed to dangerous proportions, keeping the rest of the gathering silent as she split her glare between Tomo and Amiboshi. Unseen by her, Kadiri was quietly approaching her counterpart from behind, ready to jump in and gag her if things got too hellish. "This conceited, manipulative sack of scum tells us he's completely reformed and you expect me to take it on _FAITH?!_"   
"You did with Suboshi," Amiboshi replied quietly.   
Tomo's eyes narrowed at that name, and for just a moment he looked every bit as evil as Soi was insisting he was. But... only for a moment. "I don't expect you to take it on faith at all, Soi. I might not like you either, but I don't want either of _them_ to get killed." His sharp nod took in both Chomei and Kadiri, who jumped back with an almost sheepish look as Soi cast a withering eye on her.   
"Come on, all he wants is a chance," Katai spoke up, finally arriving at Amiboshi's side. "And Chomei doesn't seem like a bad guy." The two traded glances for a brief moment before the younger continued. "Let's just give him the chance to prove he's telling the truth."   
Tomo was watching the young man almost suspiciously – after all, he'd nearly killed the flautist in their lives, so why was that one's incarnate sticking up for him? But he wasn't going to argue - it was what he wanted, after all. He nodded, his performer's training helping give an edge of humility to both action and words. "That's all I want. I don't care about your friendship, but if I don't receive at least a chance, then…" The sentence was left trailing; he had no idea how to finish it. At least he could seem like he knew what was coming next, an easy action for him, and a round of muttered comments raised themselves from the crowd. Tomo just waited.   
"A chance." The unexpected voice came from the door to the kitchen, and when Tomo looked there was Suboshi, arms determinedly crossed, watching him unflinchingly with Shirai next to him. "You get one chance."   
Tomo hesitated, then nodded. Suboshi nodded back.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"Come on, Naora-chan, we're almost home."   
A small, sleepy _mph_ met Keisuke's statement, and when he looked down he could tell that his niece was close to falling asleep on her feet. He gave the girl a fond smile as he easily lifted her into his arms, and she mustered a small one in return before laying her head on his shoulder, her tiny arms going about his neck, and falling asleep before he'd taken three steps.   
_It really is too late for her to be out. She must be exhausted._ Keisuke managed to twist his arm to catch a glimpse of his watch; it was close to 11:30. Even her parents would probably be asleep now, if Taka hadn't stayed up to finish grading papers again – and Miaka probably hadn't let him, after the excitement of the day before. Living the life of a single man had a few advantages, he remarked to himself, but mostly Keisuke wished that he could stop it all, find a woman who'd actually stick with him - all the corny stuff. It must be wonderful to have someone around who knew you inside out, even if you did fight sometimes. But until then, at least he had Naora to distract him, make him wonder if he'd one day spoil his own kids as much as he did her-   
Fireworks exploded behind his eyes and the areas around them went dark, his mind sinking quickly into abysmal darkness before he could even wonder what happened. His last conscious thought was to remind himself not to drop Naora, as Miaka would rant and rave at him if he hurt her precious baby. He didn't even feel the arms catch both him and Naora as he started to topple to the sidewalk.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
"-and today's high is 23 degrees Celsius, with a light cloud cover over most of the metropolitan area and a twenty percent chance of light showers in the late afternoon and early evening. The sun'll show it's face-"   
WHAP.   
Reijirou stopped himself from busting the alarm clock into a thousand tiny pieces by the barest margin. He hated waking up at any time, but today was just _it_ – for some reason he didn't want to wake up even more than usual. He pulled his hand back under the comforter on his bed, turning on his side and closing his eyes against the sunlight peeking through his blinds.   
Fate, though, seemed to be conspiring against him in the form of a chipper slightly-smaller "body" with his haircut. "Reijiroouuu…" came a light call, almost amused. "Time for class, come on, darling."   
"Darling?!" He sat bolt upright, gaping at the seishi in the corner. Nuriko was having a hard time standing as he was laughing his head off at Reijirou's reaction. "The heck did you call me _darling_ for?"   
"To get you up!" Nuriko finally managed to smother his laughter, winking at Reijirou. "That thing's been going off for half an hour – you'll be late!"   
"Ahhhhhhhh, SHIT!" Reijirou cursed, throwing back the blankets and nearly falling out of bed. Nuriko quickly stepped over to pull him to his feet, and Reijirou scrambled to the closet, pulling out clothes and tossing them left and right, trying to find something to wear, the clothing landing in every conceivable place in the room.   
"Ahem… Reijirou…" He glanced up to see a blue-patterned shirt draped over Nuriko's head, and the seishi giving it an ineffectual Look. "I don't particularly like wearing your clothing _this_ way…"   
"Ahhhh, sorry." He grinned sheepishly and accepted the shirt, tossing it back in the closet before pawing through the bottom in search of shoes.   
"Better hurry up or you're going to be late for class, again."   
Reijirou cursed and grabbed a shirt and a pair of khakis, sprinting out the door to the bathroom and grabbing his shoes on the way out. Nuriko just shook his head and followed calmly after him, standing well out of the way when Hajime copied his brother in an explosion from his room along with a mad dash down the hall.   
Ten minutes later, Reijirou was clean, dressed, and out the door without any breakfast. Chiaki had already taken off, in the car, so he and Nuriko were forced onto the bus among the early morning commuters (there were more than he expected). Fortunately, the bus stop was only a block from Seinan's main entrance, and once again his track years paid off as he sprinted for class, Nuriko flying effortlessly beside him with a bit of an entertained smirk on his face as Reijirou raced through the door (startling at least three students and one professor) and up the stairs and halls to Taka's class, his backpack banging on his shoulder with every step. He skidded into Taka's room at 8:58 and stopped himself before he fell down the stairs.   
It would've worked, had Nuriko been watching where he was going. He wasn't. Reijirou hadn't even finished getting his balance back before Nuriko ran into him (completely on accident, of course), and he couldn't stay upright no matter how much his arms windmilled. He pitched forward and skidded painfully down the stairs, making every head in the room turn to watch. Someone finally stuck out a hand when he'd gotten about halfway and snagged the shoulder of his shirt, halting his headlong rush after one more step and nearly choking him to death in the process.   
Taka was staring at him with the rest of the class as he got to his feet again. "Enomoto, what _possesses_ you to make these 'interesting' entrances to my room?" he inquired, unhooking his reading glasses from behind his ears. Taka had insisted on behaving with Reijirou and Risako the same way he behaved with the rest of his students, so as to draw less suspicion to them (and not get him accused of favoritism by other students or professors). Thus, the brusque attitude and use of his last name, though he knew very well what caused that slight mishap.   
"Sorry, Taka, I lost my balance," he replied somewhat painfully. Reijirou turned around on pretense of retrieving his backpack from where it had fallen off during the wild ride and glared at Nuriko.   
"Oops. Ehehehehe…" Nuriko grinned, incredibly sheepish, and gave a small wave to Reijirou. "Sorry?"   
Taka lowered his head in order to hide his laughter and shook it. "All right, just find a seat. We've got Rome today, everybody please get out your notebooks, and if you have that book with you turn to page seventy-seven." He started pushing the overhead into place.   
Reijirou gave the guy who stopped him a brief thanks, then continued the rest of the way down the stairs and up the other set, heading for his usual seat on the aisle, ignoring Nuriko (who floated along behind him) for the time being. As usual, Risako was already there in the seat next to his, notebook open and ready for class. She glanced from him to Nuriko quickly, hiding a laugh, then started paying attention to Taka as he started the morning's opening lecture. Reijirou nodded a greeting, sat down, pulled out his book and notebook, and quickly began scribbling notes.   
Taka was an excellent teacher, but the pace of his lectures was fast and furious, with every main point listed on the overhead. Unfortunately for some members of the class, Taka was also the type of teacher who expected one to know the details concerning the main points – all the stuff that he didn't bother to write down. One set of students had developed a type of shorthand for his class and was making a small fortune selling "manuals" to other individuals. Reijirou hadn't purchased any badly-made computer-paper books, instead writing faster than he'd ever had cause to before and feeling grateful that Taka only lectured once a week – he couldn't deal with the hand cramp more than that.   
Nuriko had taken a seat beside her and was watching Taka, his chin propped on his hand, with a small smile on his face and what could have been a gleam of pride in his eyes, when there was a small pop of air just behind Reijirou. Neither he nor Risako dared glance back, although they were sitting in the back of the group as usual, but Nuriko turned for a quick look and Reijirou could have sworn that Taka glanced up as well. "Hotohori-sama," the purple-haired seishi said quietly so as not to disturb Taka, and Reijirou gave a slight nod: he was "hosting" Nuriko and Hotohori for the day, and had in fact began to wonder when the former emperor would appear. Risako raised her hand to twiddle her fingers over her shoulder at him, but immediately returned to taking notes before her paper jumped off the desk from the speed of her writing. Reijirou heard Nuriko suppress a laugh and felt certain that the emperor had at least smiled at Risako's actions.   
With Hotohori there, though, his concentration was starting to drift. Risako gave his ankle a light kick at one point when his pen drifted off the paper, leaving a smattering ink trail on the desk, but after only a few words his mind drifted again. Hotohori and Nuriko – the two pieces of the most complicated puzzle he'd ever run across. How did they fit together? From the way they'd both been acting whenever they were together, they were nothing more than good friends, and Reijirou doubted that Hotohori felt anything more for Nuriko than a brotherly kind of love. But Nuriko, now… he was a whole other matter. Was he simply ignoring or hiding his feelings, or did he not have any romantic interest in the emperor anymore? Relations between them had improved tremendously since his outburst Saturday morning, but he still remembered Nuriko almost pleading not to make him find out if he still loved Hotohori. At the moment he felt secure with the way he was, the way he was choosing to live, but it was always possible that there would be a moment of doubt again, and indeed, even as he was thinking he could feel it beginning to trickle into his stomach and settle there like a lump of lead-   
Reijirou nearly jumped out of his seat as sudden banging ended his reverie. Looking almost wildly about, he saw students everywhere slamming desks back into storage positions, dropping full bags on seats, jumping down the steps and heading for the door. He had to blink in amazement; he'd wasted almost the entire class lost in thought. Next to him, already standing and mostly packed, Risako gave him an amused little glance. "So you _are_ awake," she remarked cheerfully as she closed her notebook and slid it out of sight. "What a change, what a change."   
"It seems to me to be a bit of a waste to lose yourself in your mind and fail to take advantage of your excellent educational opportunities," Hotohori added with an amused note to a more formal than usual phrase.   
Nuriko giggled. "You're lucky we're in a public place – I was thinking of dropping something on your head."   
"Good thing you didn't," Reijirou quipped, glancing at his paper and wincing. Only a page and a half of notes, and he'd seen Risako'd had seven from that day alone. "Can I copy your notes? I swear I'll give them back later."   
"Sure." She extracted the notebook from her backpack and handed it over. When Reijirou finished repacking, he finally stood up and headed down the stairs, adjusting the strap on the bag as he went. He'd already set foot on the floor before he noticed someone standing at Taka's desk, where the teacher had reclaimed his seat, watching him with distinct unease. Taka was holding a piece of paper in his hand, his expression unreadable behind his glasses, just staring at it.   
"I'm sorry, Professor Sukunami, but that's what she said." The visitor's voice was quavering. She was a rather petite woman with short hair whom Reijirou finally recognized as being some sort of secretary. Risako and Hotohori cut off their conversation to listen, the small group frozen at the bottom of the stairs, the only other people remaining in the room.   
"When did this come in?" Taka's voice was almost displaying no emotion other than a distinct tightness that told Reijirou he was fighting to keep it under control.   
"Only a few minutes ago, sir." The secretary wrung her hands, even more nerves entering her voice. "I would have come then, but he said I had to wait-"   
It was too late for explanations. In less than a second Taka had thrown himself away from the desk and sped up the stairs, the door banging open before him seemingly of its own accord. The secretary could only watch the flight path in shock, but Reijirou and Risako reacted immediately: both of them took off sprinting, Reijirou taking the lead, and shouting Taka's name at the top of their lungs. The two seishi disappeared, Nuriko reappearing next to the speeding students, seeming to concentrate on something. A bit of red light seemed to dance beneath his clothing.   
"Left!" he suddenly called. The two unquestioningly turned, still running, and then "Right!" down a set of stairs and another right, then a left straight into the staff room.   
Taka was already there, breathing heavily, Hotohori with him, the remains of both their symbols fading from forehead and neck, respectively. Without stopping to talk, the teacher shoved the paper he'd been staring at earlier into their hands, then turned to pick up the phone and quickly punched in a number. Reijirou's mouth was open, the question was poised to emerge, and Risako jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and pointed at the paper. He looked down, and his eyes widened in shock.   
  


_Naora and Keisuke have vanished. Miaka._

  
  
"DAMN!" Taka roared, slamming down the phone so hard the receiver cracked. "FUCK!" A string of yells, obscenities, and strangulated cries poured themselves from his throat as he again lifted the receiver and brought it crashing down on the tabletop, and again and again. Chips of plastic flew as the receiver crumbled more and more under the teacher's abuse. All Reijirou and Risako could do was stare, but a flash of red light came from Nuriko's direction before the seishi walked over to the teacher and grabbed his arms, arm guards shining dully. Hotohori took the opportunity to extract the battered, broken phone from Taka's grasp and move the entire apparatus away from him as Taka struggled against Nuriko's bonds. "DAMNIT NURIKO LET ME GO!"   
"Not until you stop destroying stuff." Nuriko's voice, though a bit shaky, was still far more under control than Taka's. "What's going on? How could this happen?"   
"LET! ME! GO!"   
"Taka," Risako began, stepping forward, "please, calm down and try to explain." She was hesitant to approach someone so enraged, but that didn't stop her. "What happened to Keisuke and Naora-chan?"   
Taka fought and cursed uselessly for another couple of minutes as Reijirou locked the door, preventing their sensei from escaping again without an explanation. "You know it must have something to do with Ashitare," he spoke quietly, back still to the group. "You know we'll hear eventually, anyway. And we want to help – if more people are looking for them, then there's a better chance of them being found, isn't there?" It had occurred to Reijirou that since neither Keisuke nor Naora were seishi, it would be impossible for any of the seishi to trace their ki. With the easiest method of locating someone out of the picture, it was left for a determined group of people working on foot to find them – so the more that knew, the better.   
"DAMNIT THEY'VE GOT MY KID!"   
"AND OUR FRIENDS!" Nuriko yelled, just about fed up with it, wrenching Taka's arms into positions that made him howl with pain. "Now TELL US or I knock you out and go find Miaka!"   
The seishi finally released Taka, and for a moment all the teacher did was stand there, glaring at the floor and massaging the biceps in his right arm. When he looked up again, they could all see his glare and the faint sheen of red that was starting to glow at his forehead.   
"Keisuke tries to help us with Naora by giving us a night off sometimes." His tone was fast and clipped, so abrupt it was impossible to reconcile it with the yelling from earlier. "Last night he came by the apartment to pick her up, and they left to do all the usual things they do. She spends the night at his place on those nights, and he brings her back before he goes to work in the morning. Judging by that-" he nodded briskly at the paper Risako still held "-they never came back this morning. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call my wife."   
"You can't," Reijirou commented as Taka turned to find the phone. Hotohori held up the fractured device, an expression of utmost calm on his face. Taka blinked at it in surprise for a second, then scowled again and stomped to the door, which Reijirou blocked. "Listen, Taka," he said in an undertone, grabbing the man's upper arm to force him to listen, "you've got every right to be pissed. I would be too. But flying into a rage will _not_ help either of them. So let's go find Miaka and ask her what's going on."   
Taka shrugged off his student's arm, unlocked the door, and stormed out.   
  


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  
  
The ride to the Sukunami apartment was tense. Taka hadn't taken his car to work that day, so outside the building he hailed a cab and climbed in, taking no notice of Reijirou and Risako as they scrambled in after him. Nuriko dove into Reijirou, and Hotohori settled himself into the front seat. Taka gave his address quickly, tersely, before turning to the window and, to all appearances, stare at the passing scenery with such intensity that any words anyone were to speak to him immediately died on their lips. But there was something in the way his fingers twitched on his knee that made Reijirou sure his teacher was not seeing a bit of it. No one spoke. The driver, who seemed to be a gregarious sort under normal circumstances, attempted once or twice to start a conversation before being silenced by a meaningful look from Risako.   
Several terse minutes later the cab pulled up in front of the Sukunami's building. Taka shoved a bill at the driver and bolted, Reijirou and Risako following and ignoring the driver shout at them about forgetting their change. Hotohori stayed behind for a second, then reappeared with them just as a yell came from the direction of the taxi. Reijirou didn't want to know.   
Through the door, up the stairs, and Taka burst into his apartment. "MIAKA!" he yelled, still ignoring the two students following him and the former emperor. Now that they were released from the confines of the taxi, Nuriko was struggling out of Reijirou, but there was no time to pay attention to that. "MIAKA!"   
"In here."   
The other four shared a glance as Taka tore off in the direction Miaka' voice had come from. In total contrast to her husband, Miaka sounded… beaten. Quiet, exhausted, small, it was as if she had given up.   
"No… she wouldn't have…" Risako whispered, denying their unspoken mutual thought.   
"You never know what extreme situations will force people to do," Hotohori answered quietly. "Let's go see what happened."   
They nodded, then all four started down the hallway to the door Taka had vanished through, not sure what they would find and almost not wanting to know. The door was open, revealing a small room decorated entirely in pink and white – white walls, pink spread on the small white bed, white lamp with pink shade, pink stenciling on the white dresser. A small mountain of stuffed animals presided over one corner, while an adult-sized rocking chair sat in the corner next to a child-sized reproduction. Miaka sat in the rocking chair, far too pale, limp-haired. Tear tracks shone on her cheeks, and she was more lifeless than anyone could remember – even by Nuriko or Hotohori's memory. Taka knelt next to her, her hand in his, the rage gone to be replaced with a look of something close to agony. He looked up as they entered, and Reijirou nearly stumbled back – Taka looked completely helpless. He was a lost as a five-year-old; now that he'd made it home he had no idea what to do, no course of action to take, and he was entirely defeated.   
"I don't know what happened," Miaka said, obviously holding back more tears. The chair moved slowly back and forth, creaking a little, even though she wasn't pushing it. "They're usually here by seven, or eight at the latest. I wondered, but I guessed they stopped for breakfast or something somewhere…" She paused to swipe at her eyes with her left hand. Her right was clutching something square and silver. "But Nii-chan always calls when he does that. And by nine there was no call, and I only got his answering machine when I called his apartment, so I went over there… Their beds, Taka. Their beds hadn't been slept in and her little pajamas were laid out on her bed like she was going to put them on any second…" Miaka lost her battle, dissolving into a wail and falling over to lean against her husband and cry, shaking with the force of her sobs. All Taka could do was wrap his arms around her shoulders and hold her, too stricken to cry.   
"I'll… go make some tea." Risako took a step back at a questioning look from Reijirou. "What? It might help them calm down…" She turned and left before he could say anything, footsteps quiet on the carpet.   
Nuriko hesitantly took a step forward, paused, then seemed to steel himself and step forward again, then again, to finally kneel on the other side of Miaka's rocking chair from Taka, taking her hand between his. "Miaka, I… I'm sorry. I know it sounds trite, but I am, and I want to help you find your daughter."   
"And I, too." Hotohori almost seemed to copy the smaller seishi as he started forward, then stopped, then continued. "I'll help you search for Keisuke." The emperor placed a hand on Taka's shoulder, fingers tightening slightly in what was meant to be a reassuring gesture. "We'll all help; all the seishi. With everyone, it shouldn't be hard."   
"Umm…"   
Eight eyes turned to Risako, framed in the doorway. Miaka was still sobbing into Taka's shoulder, unable to move.   
"I found this by the door – it looks like someone slid it under the crack. They must have done it right after we came in." The red-haired girl hesitantly stepped up to hand Taka a piece of paper dangling from her fingers. Reijirou saw what appeared to be a scattered explosion of _things_ before the teacher faced the paper his way. Taka's eyes traveled across the paper several times, becoming harder and more angry with every pass – and his forehead was beginning to glow red again. After a few moments he smacked the paper down onto the floor, glaring at it for all he was worth, and Reijirou slowly approached to see what more bad news had come.   
It was like something out of a bad paperback mystery: the chaos was formed of letters that had been snipped out of magazines and newspapers, all of different sizes and color schemes so Reijirou almost felt a seizure coming on simply looking at them. Whether the writers thought that tactic would scare them more or just be a nice touch was impossible to say, but there was no denying the words were every bit as bad as they had dreaded:   
  


_I have both of them. Do not call the police, or they will die. Wait for our next set of instructions. If you tell anyone, they will die.   
__-Ashitare_  


  
An ink paw print lay below the "signature". Scotch taped next to it were two small chunks of hair, almost an identical sandy brown - a color that matched the picture of Keisuke holding Naora on his shoulders, the little girl laughing delightedly, that slipped out of Miaka's hand and fell to the floor with barely a sound.   
  


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AUTHOR'S NOTES II: All right... I know y'all wanna kill me. I accept that. BUT! If you do, you won't know what happens, mwahahahaha!   
I discovered that something else was holding me back as well - I was trying to write something that did not fit in with the plot and the characters. I'm not telling you what it is, but I was trying to put it in and I didn't realize until May that it didn't work. My stories are smarter than me sometimes - it just stopped letting itself be written. That was mostly the cause of my stall. So once I went back and reworked stuff (which meant a lot of thinking), it all went more smoothly. Still took two months, but hey, I finished it and I know where things are going after this.   
And speaking of things... If you read my other stories, you've probably noticed lack of updates on them as well. I'm happy to say that I have worked more on Market, and I've gotten a lot done on the next part of Wine-Colored Geisha. Geisha seems to be going faster, so that'll probably be the next thing up, but Market's getting into a flow now as well. I promise not to make you wait so long for the next chapter of anything! Once again, I'm sorry, but I'm going to make it up to you! Jaa! 


End file.
